Microsoft apologises for Windows 7 beta gaffe

Microsoft is apologising to users after the company incorrectly listed the date for the beginning of the Windows 7 beta expiration process.

In an email sent out to customers last weekend, the company warned that copies of the Windows 7 beta release would on 1 June begin shutting down every two hours and users were encouraged to update to the more recent release candidate build or revert back to Windows Vista.

The real day in which the automatic shutdowns are set to begin, however, is 1 July. The software will fully expire on 1 August and all copies of the software will be classified as "not genuine".

The expiration of the beta release will begin nearly two months after the company set the release candidate build of Windows 7 live. That build is not set to expire until March 2010.

Microsoft is planning to release the official commercial version of Windows 7 later this year, possibly as early as October.