As of now, there are three ways to get a genuine copy of Windows 7 for free:

1) Download through the MSDN Academic Alliance (MSNDAA) if you are currently enrolled in University or College and in an engineering and science program. It differs for different school so therefore you should check at this page – http://www.msdnaa.net/search/schoolsearch.aspx to see if your school is enrolled in this program. Well, if you are a student from different faculty then you should start making friends with science and engineering people. I am not sure what the licences restrictions for MSDNAA copy of Windows 7 are so you should read the fine prints.

2) IEEE Student Membership – You can choose to join the IEEE membership as a student for about $32 a year and you get access to MSDNAA above and receive two copies of Windows 7 for free and other Microsoft software. You can find the IEEE membership page here – http://www.ieee.org/web/membership/j….mc_id=tu_join

Please note that if you choose to take this route, it may take up to 8 days before you get the access to MSNDAA. You can see a very long and detailed discussion at this site:

http://m.slickdeals.net/forums/showt…id=0&t=1505729

3) ACM Membership – Again, you will get MSNDAA access if you join the ACM. (Association for Computing Machinery) The annual student membership cost is $19 and the membership forms can be found here – http://campus.acm.org/public/quickjoin/interim.cfm

SlickDeals user Wikipost posted these following information if you choose to go this route:

- sign up and ACM will send you log-in information
- then you will have to wait till ACM lets you opt-in for MSDNAA membership — it will take approx. 1 to 2 days — to check if you can “opt-in�, log in to “MyACM� and under the “My Services� tab you will find a light blue box saying “Access ACM’s Student Academic Initiative (SAI) Programs: Developer Academic Alliance (formerly MSDN AA), Sun Academic Initiative, and CA Academic Initiative� — click on “Developer Academic Alliance� link in this box and if ACM has already processed your payment, you will be able to “opt-in� (however, you do not have to wait for the payment processed email ACM will sent you)
- once you “opt-in�, MSDNAA will send you their log-in info within 24 hours (check your junk mail folder – my email was buried in junk)

FAQ:

Q. Can students keep these tools after they graduate?
A. Yes, this license is perpetual and non-transferable. You don’t have to uninstall the tools, but the stipulation of “academic use only� does not change. From MSDNAA Website

Q: How long does it take to receive the log-on details?
A: 1-2 days.

Q: Do you have to be a student to signup?
A: Technically, yes, but they don’t ask for credentials.

Q: How many Windows 7 licenses do you get?
A: Four… two (Eng/Fre)for the x86 and two (Eng/Fre) for x64. But users are reporting that the keys are interchangeable.

Q: Where’s Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint? Will they be available?
A: Probably not.

Yes, I know the last two options are not free but paying less than $40 to get a genuine copy of Windows 7 that usually costs should be considered a “free� deal!

Again, you can find more info at my website below!

Microsoft today announced that Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 have hit the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) milestone. The software giant still has a lot of work to do, but the bigger responsibility now falls to OEMs that must get PCs ready, Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) that are testing their new apps, and Independent Hardware Vendors (IHVs) that are preparing their new hardware. The RTM build is 7600, but it is not the same one that leaked less than two weeks ago (7600.16384). We speculated that Microsoft may end up recompiling build 7600 until it is satisfied, but it only took the company one more shot to get it right: 7600.16385 is the final build number. Microsoft refused to share the full build string, but if you trust leaks from a few days ago, it’s “6.1.7600.16385.090713-1255,” which indicates that the final build was compiled over a week ago: July 13, 2009, at 12:55pm. This would be in line with the rumored RTM date but it is also the day Microsoft stated that Windows 7 had not yet hit RTM. Although the final build had been compiled, Microsoft still had to put it through testing before christening it as RTM.

The big day has home. Tomorrow Windows 7 RTM will be published to Windows 7 fans. Some of you may ask what rtm is ?

RTM means that Microsoft has a new software product that has reached the Release To Manufacturing status, a.k.a. generally available to the public.

According to rumors microsoft will publish RTM on 13th of July. When it’s released i’m sure we will be able to download it from public torrents.

Windows 7. Net will always keep you updated