I plan to live forever. So far, so good.

I was in the Beta testing program for Windows 7, which is how I got this message, confirming that Windows 7 has reached the RTM milestone:

Dear Tudor,
As you know, Microsoft® Windows 7 was Released to Manufacturing (RTM) this afternoon, July 22, 2009. We are excited to be releasing what we consider our best OS to date and we couldn’t have done it without you, our Technical Beta Testers!

And here are the details on Windows 7 availability, right from the Windows 7 Team Blog.

UPDATE: Daniel Melanchthon, technical evangelist for Security and Messaging in the Developer & Platform Strategy Group at Microsoft Germany, made public the official SHA-1 and MD5 Checksum Hash information for what appear to be the original MSDN/TechNet DVD ISO Images of Windows 7 RTM Build 7600.16385:

Windows 7 Retail Ultimate E English (x86)
Name: 7600.16385.090713-1255_x86fre_cliente_en-us_Retail_UltimateE-GRMCEULFRER_EN_DVD.iso
CRC: 0x953EFBCC
SHA-1: 0xBC10F09B86DCBAF35B31B0E6FBA7D006ACAAD28D

Windows 7 Retail Ultimate E English (x64)
Name: 7600.16385.090713-1255_x64fre_cliente_en-us_Retail_UltimateE-GRMCEULXFRER_EN_DVD.iso
CRC: 0x77BE890E
SHA-1: 0x029DCCEDD7691206010F84CE58343405A4DA92C9

Windows 7 Retail Ultimate English (x86)
Name: 7600.16385.090713-1255_x86fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULFRER_EN_DVD.iso
CRC: 0xC1C20F76
MD5: D0B8B407E8A3D4B75EE9C10147266B89
SHA-1: 0x5395DC4B38F7BDB1E005FF414DEEDFDB16DBF610

Windows 7 Retail Ultimate English (x64)
Name: 7600.16385.090713-1255_x64fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULXFRER_EN_DVD.iso
CRC: 0x1F1257CA
MD5: F43D22E4FB07BF617D573ACD8785C028
SHA-1: 0x326327CC2FF9F05379F5058C41BE6BC5E004BAA7

The information published by Melanchthon will allow users to compare the MD5 and SHA-1 hash checksum values of any Windows 7 ISO images with the official SHA1, MD5 and CRC hash checksum values. If the values coincide then users have a guarantee that the downloads they checked are in fact the original ISO images of Windows 7 provided by Microsoft and that the files have not been tampered with in any way.

In this regard, Microsoft is offering the File Checksum Integrity Verifier utility. “The File Checksum Integrity Verifier (FCIV) is a command-prompt utility that computes and verifies cryptographic hash values of files. FCIV can compute MD5 or SHA-1 cryptographic hash values. These values can be displayed on the screen or saved in an XML file database for later use and verification,” the company informed. (Source: news.softpedia.com)