Exactly a week from today, current users of the Windows 7 Release Candidate will be prompted to either upgrade their OS to the retail version of Windows 7 or downgrade to another version of Windows.

Although the RC does not fully expire until June 1st, users will begin to see expiration phases, the first of which will start next Monday.

As previously mentioned, the Windows 7 RC is set to launch its first phase of expiration notifications on the 15th, including a little expiration notification in the taskbar once per day, along with a Wizard every four hours, which will eventually increase to once every hour.

Half a month later (March 1st), users will experience a restart every two hours until the official expiration date, where the desktop will be a pure black color, along with the presentation of Windows Activation screens that state the copy of Windows is not genuine on top of the bihourly restarts.

To avoid these annoyances, users can either purchase and upgrade to a full, RTM version of Windows 7, downgrade to an older OS such as Vista or XP, or install something else such as Ubuntu or Jolicloud.