[From sevenforums.com]

Windows 7 RTM will be available to all MSDN Subscribers on August 6

Summary

On August 6th, the first public release of Windows 7 will be to MSDN Subscribers, which is over two months ahead of the general availability date of October 22nd for retail and OEM customers. To support the variety of languages and builds, 893 different images are being released to MSDN Subscriber Downloads in three waves through August 21st.
We expect that this release will break all MSDN download traffic records, which is why groups from across the company have gone through tremendous effort to ensure its success. This has included but is not limited to: load and performance testing on the MSDN Web site, adding significant capacity to the product key servers, performance testing on the product key servers, capacity planning for the download servers and network, and more.

Additional Information & Resources


Release Waves
893 different images are being released to MSDN Subscriber Downloads in 3 waves:

· Wave 1 (August 6th):

· All Windows 7 Client (x86 and x64) Retail and VL Editions – English only
· Language packs, WAIKs, WDKs, SDKs, and Symbols – in all available languages

· Wave 2 (August 14th):

· Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Web, Itanium (x64 and ia64) – English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese
· All Windows 7 Client (x86 and x64) Retail and VL Editions – French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese
· Checked builds – English

· Wave 3 (August 21st):

· Remaining Windows 7 Client and Windows Server 2008 R2 Editions in the following languages, released as they become available (likely order) – Dutch, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Brazilian, Polish, Korean, Traditional Chinese (Taiwan), Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong – SAR), Turkish, Czech, Portuguese, Hungarian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, Ukrainian, Thai, Romanian, Lithuanian, Slovak, Bulgarian, Estonian, Croatian, Serbian Latin, Latvian, Slovenian

· Windows 7 Starter Edition – All languages

E Versions

· The E versions of Windows 7 do not include Internet Explorer.
· We recommend that Subscribers get an Internet browser from Microsoft, or another software manufacturer, so they can install it after they install Windows 7.
· The E versions are limited to distribution in the EEA, Croatia, and Switzerland.

N Versions

· The N versions of Windows 7 do not include Internet Explorer or Windows Media® Player and related technologies, such as Windows Media Center, or Windows DVD Maker.
· Subscribers will need software from Microsoft or a third party in order to browse Internet web sites, play or create audio CDs, media files and video DVDs, organize content in a media library, create playlists, convert audio CDs to media files, view artist and title information of media files, view album art of music files, transfer music to personal music players, or record and playback TV broadcasts.
· We recommend that Subscribers get an Internet browser from Microsoft, or another software manufacturer, so they can install it after they install Windows 7.
· The N versions are limited to distribution in the EEA, Croatia, and Switzerland.

Windows 7 Release Candidate Time Bomb Information

· For customers who continue to use the Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) release, license expiration messages will begin on Feb 14, 2010 and it will time-bomb (shutdown every 2 hours) starting March 1, 2010.

Media Delivery for MSDN Subscribers

· For Subscribers who receive media, the media for Windows 7 will be included in the November shipment.
· For media shipments in EMEA containing Win 7 SKUs, Microsoft will not be shipping the N versions of Windows 7. Instead, Microsoft will only ship the standard and E versions.

Supportability Notes

· To reduce potential impacts on the Product Key system during the anticipated high traffic immediately following launch, Microsoft has pre-claimed a single product key on behalf of active subscribers who claimed a Windows 7 Beta or RC key. The product key notes will state, “If you retrieved a key for the Windows 7 Beta or RC, a Windows 7 key has been provided for your convenience.”
· Upgrade Paths: There is NO supported upgrade path from either Windows 7 Beta or RC – to Windows 7 RTM. For more information, see Windows 7 Upgrade Paths.
· Support for Windows 7 Home Basic and Home Premium: There will NOT be Microsoft Product Support in place for Windows 7 Consumer Products (Home Basic and Home Premium) until General Availability in October.
· E and N Versions: The availability of these versions, without a Web browser (Internet Explorer), is likely to cause some customer confusion in terms of the steps they need to take to obtain one.