On May 5th, general users will have access to Windows 7 for one full year! It is already for download for MSDN and TechNet subscribers. This is only the Release Candidate version and will expire on June 1, 2010. The Release Candidate is merely the near finished product and is basically the final stage in testing. t's supposed to have all the features of the final version. We don't know when the final version will be released but rumors say it'll be either late 2009 or early 2010. Windows 7 boasts a lot of new features including a new taskbar, libraries, jump lists, etc. Windows 7 will also come packaged with the newest Internet Explorer (IE8). One of the biggest improvements is the performance. It will not take 5-10 minutes to boot your system. We will also see a new feature called Windows XP mode, which lets you run native XP programs on your machine.

[MNDaily]