Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 15 years and 11 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

Microsoft made publicly available the first (only?) release candidate of Windows 7 this week, so I downloaded the image and then installed it at work on the same laptop I had put the beta on a few months ago.

One interesting thing I noticed was the new login screen background, which has what appears to be an artistic dove and olive branch image.

Is this a subtle peace offering from Microsoft, apologizing for Vista? 😀

It turns out that it’s actually a hummingbird as Microsoft switched the “mascot” of Windows 7 away from the betta fish (although that default wallpaper still appears in build 7100).

If you’re going to check out the release candidate, just be aware that starting on March 1, 2010, the software will shut itself down after 2 hours. It expires altogether on August 1, 2010.

One final side note: while trying to figure out where this image was located (it’s C:\Windows\System32\oobe, if you’re interested) I found this article about how Windows 7 will support login screen customization. Cool.