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marcand marcand
 
M$4 January 08, 2009 04:23 AM

What happens when Windows 7 beta expires?

Windows 7 will be released for public beta download on January 9, 2009 directly from Microsoft, limited to the first 2.5 million downloads. However, on the Windows 7 blog, Brandon LeBlanc mentions that the beta will expire on August 1, 2009. What happens to a system running Windows 7 after that? Self-destruct, rollback to Vista, requires purchase of Windows 7 ...? Anyone know for sure?

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/default.aspx

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/01/07/information-on-downloading-and-installing-windows-7-beta.aspx
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jamesmusik jamesmusik
 
 January 08, 2009 04:29 AM
It will likely be similar to the Vista beta, which is that it will let you login for 2 hours to save data and will then automatically reboot.
Source(s):
http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2007/04/24/windows-vi...

Asker's Rating:
• Thanks for linking to a previous Microsoft test. I agree this is their most likely course of action.


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winmaster winmaster
 
January 09, 2009 12:03 AM
Well, what will likely happen is you will be required to either roll back to your previous operating system (if you did an upgrade install), purchase Windows 7, or reformat your hard drive and install another OS. The only exception is that if Microsoft has not finished Beta testing by the time it expires, you probably will be able to download a new activation key that will make it work for a bit longer.

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oboewan oboewan
 
January 09, 2009 01:45 AM
Likely, Genuine Advantage will kick in, making you unable to download any patches and unable to use the computer for more than a certain time at a time.

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pescina pescina
 
January 09, 2009 04:11 AM
Here's some more speculation given by the folks at wired.com:

"The Windows 7 Beta will expire on August 1. You will probably be forced to go back to using Vista SP1 on August 1 (or maybe upgrade to Win7 Beta 2?)."
Source(s):
http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/01/how-to-get-your.html


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