Windows 7 release candidate on the way out

For those Windows users who downloaded the company’s release candidate version last year, your free ride may be coming to an end.

Before Microsoft releases a new version of Windows, it offers a release candidate version to the public for a free download in order to locate bugs and other glitches. Users are given the provision they may download the fully-working version for free, but it will only operate fully for a certain period of time.

As of yesterday, the Windows 7 RC will begin shutting down every two hours. These shut-downs will continue until June 1, when the software will begin shutting down even more regularly.

The RC will also mark itself as non-genuine, which will prevent users from taking advantage of any feature which requires a legitimate keycode.