OK, so I am a little late in posting this piece of news, but anyway. As of today Windows 7 RC and Windows XP mode is available to the public.
Microsoft states on its Windows 7 site that the RC will be available at least through July and that it will expire on 1 June 2010. Just a little heads up though; From 1 March 2010 the RC will begin shutting down every 2 hours!
If you want to try out the Windows XP Mode for the RC that one is also available for download. Just a little notification before you do; Make sure that your hardware supports hardware virtualization. Ed Bott has written a great piece on it, with accompanying charts explaining which intel CPUs supports this feature and which ones that doesn’t.