Windows 7 RC set for April 10th, will be public

Neowin.net reports that a trusted source within Microsoft informed them that the RC will not be ready by the end of this month, but instead, the RC is being tested internally and the official release date is set for April 10, 2009. It is likely that once the RC build is ready for the masses, TechNet and MSDN subscribers will be the first to get their hands on the build, though that won’t stop many people from downloading it off torrent sites once it has been leaked.

Sinofsky mentioned that, “recently we’ve seen people talk about ‘RC Builds’ and the like. First, all builds since the beta are RC builds since by definition that is the next milestone. But by far the most humorous element has been that the build numbers blogged about are higher than our current build. Today’s build is 7046, but it hasn’t completed yet .”

Source.

It also seems that the RC build will be widely available to the public for testing once it’s released, with ArsTechnica.com stating: “When I asked Sinofsky if Microsoft Connect testers as well as MSDN and TechNet subscribers will get the RC before the public, Sinofsky told me no: “The build will be available broadly.”"

Also, it seems Microsoft is listening to feedback. Sinofsky reports that MS has received over 500,000 suggestions using the ‘Send Feedback’ button. This amazing wealth of feedback will surely keep Windows 7 on the road to success. It looks now as if there is nothing stopping Microsoft from releasing Windows 7 this year (and most likely doing a damn good job at it).

I’ll keep readers informed on any new information.