It has been 9 months since Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) was released and now the free ride from Microsoft is almost over.

As of February 15th 2010 Windows 7 RC will start Phase 1  “reminders” that you will have to upgrade to the final version. Doesn’t sound so bad hey… Well on March 1st 2010 Phase 2 will starts when Windows 7 RC will continue to notify users that they need to upgrade, but then their computers will also start to restart every two hours (without notice).

Then on June 1st 2010 Microsoft steps it up a notch and the desktop background will be changed to black. (Like the reboots every two hours are annoying enough.)

If you are still were one of those 1% of users worldwide that install Windows 7 RC and you are still running it then you can check out Microsoft  Install, reinstall or uninstall Windows article for more help.

Just in case you were wondering, the Windows 7 Beta expired on August 1st 2009 so needless to say you probably not running that any more.

For more information on the expiry dates check out http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971767

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. Read the rest at windows7center.com.