Another tidbit for you, if you'd like to test out a specific version/sku of Windows 7 (Starter, Home Premium, etc.), you can do so, even though the RC download is the full "Ultimate" download. Steps listed at http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=922&page=5#s6.

No, I was able to find a fix for the PunkBuster issue.

Go to Windows\system32 and do a folder search for "pnkbstr" (without quotes, obviously). You should see two exe's called PnkBstrA.exe, and PnkBstrB.exe. Go into the properties of each and under compatibility, check Run as Administrator.

Secondly, go to your Services window (in W7 you can access this through the task manager, or go to Run -> and enter services.msc). From there, locate PnkBstrB (mine doesn't list PnkBstrA for some reason, but if it does, do this same step for it), right click, go to proterties, click on the Log On tab, and check the box labelled "Allow service to interact with desktop" under the Local System Account option.

And that's it. It took me a loooooong time to sort through all of the google results to find this. And yes, it does work.

I've got my key but I'd like to download this to my box at home while at work. Does anyone have a direct download link? I tried to use lynx/links but the page requires java. Besides, I'm a big fan of wget.

Just as an FYI, I just upgraded to RC1 from beta build 7022 using the method I posted in my original post. The upgrade process worked flawlessly, albeit it took forever (a little over an hour). Best part is that I did not have to reinstall a single thing.

And I upgraded from Vista and it took closer to 3 hours... And I did find 1 (ONE) bug.
http://windows7forums.com/windows-7-support/4354-program-icons-missing-all-programs-menu.html#post22274