One of the questions I received from my Regardless of what any hack says, a Windows 7 Upgrade is an Upgrade. What you need to know post, in addition to seeing this topic discussed by people in comments in several other places is, “I downloaded the Windows 7 Beta, RC, and/or RTM code for my computer so this qualifies me to use a Windows Upgrade license to get Windows 7 for my computer, right?”  Here’s the answer to this question:

As you know, Microsoft often makes available the beta, Release Candidate (RC), or Release To Manufacturing (RTM) code available to people around the world to use on their computers for a limited amount of time.  This serves several purposes, including giving people a chance to try out the programs before they are actually launched into the market and by allowing people to give us feedback on what they are experiencing with the product, such as issues, bugs, incompatibilities, features, etc. that our developers need to know about as they work towards the release of the final product.  Beta and pre-release testers play a very important part in the software development cycle and their feedback to us is incredibly valuable.  There is something very important to realize though about these versions of the products: Beta, RC, and RTM releases of the products do not include product licenses for the full/final release products.  These are limited-time, trial code of the product.

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