Windows 7 RC, meanwhile, has a June 1, 2010 expiration date, with the every-two-hour auto-shutdowns starting March 1, 2010. Long before that — on Oct. 22, in fact — Microsoft will have ...

The beta will also be posted to Microsoft’s IT-oriented Springboard Series site, which will add a “Windows 7” tab to the existing Windows XP and Windows Vista tabs already there.

Windows 7 beta is set to expire Aug. 1, 2009, at which time users must either update to a newer version of the operating system, or reinstall an earlier edition of Windows, such as Vista or XP.

Microsoft originally planned to offer the Windows 7 beta to the public from Jan. 9 to Jan. 24, and to limit the trial to 2.5 million downloads, but removed these limits due to the overwhelming ...

Attempts, however, to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 beta 1 are not allowed. It's not clear whether Microsoft will allow those upgrades upon general availability of Windows 7 later this year.

Martin upgraded Virtual PC 2007 to SP1, and gave the Windows 7 beta the 1024 MB of RAM it needs. Now the VM Additions install, but the sound drivers won't. It's still better than last week.