Get the Windows 7 Release Candidate right here!

The first release candidate of Windows 7 has been posted for download, and will remain available until the end of July. Windows 7 RC is a free download as part of the Customer Preview Program, and will expire on June 1, 2010 (at which time you should be running the final release).

Microsoft suggests a system with a 1GHz processor or faster DirectX 9-enabled graphics processor with WDDM 1.0+, 1 GB RAM and 16GB of storage for a 32-bit installation, or 2 GB RAM and 20GB of storage for 64-bit. Both the 32- and 64-bit versions are available in English, German, Japanese, French, and Spanish.

Microsoft warns in the release notes that computers running Release Candidate 1 and up will not be able to communicate with be managed remotely using Windows Remote Management on "pre-RC computers," because the default HTTP/HTTPS ports for WinRM and PowerShell have been changed. Betanews tests show that network communication does work with the RC.