It’s officially over now. Yes, the download program for the trial version of the upcoming Windows 7 OS was officially shut down by Microsoft on Tuesday. However, the software maker told the users, who started downloading the operating system lately, to finish it up by Thursday. Regarding that, the reminder was issued to the users on Monday.

Microsoft stated that the download program was officially stopped, so the people who visited the site on Tuesday could get a product key, but not the code itself. The company told that the people who started downloading the OS in time should complete the process until 9 a.m. PST Thursday.

Microsoft site where people could download the beta now shows up the message – "Sorry, Windows 7 Beta downloads are no longer available."

In a post, Brandon LeBlanc, Microsoft's in-house Windows blogger, wrote, "Special thanks to everyone who is beta testing Windows 7, but new downloads of the Windows 7 Beta will no longer be available.”

LeBlanc reiterated, “The people who began to download the massive disk image file -- 2.44GB for the 32-bit version, 3.15GB for the 64-bit -- before today have until noon Eastern time on Thursday to complete the process, and activation keys will be available indefinitely.”

Microsoft stated that the beta version of Windows 7 OS is no longer available for the general public, but the members of Microsoft's MSDN and TechNet developer programs will be able to access the code.  

According to the software maker, Windows 7 beta will expire on Aug. 1, 2009, and then the users of the beta version will either have to update to a newer version of the OS, or reinstall an earlier edition of Windows, such as Vista or XP.

The Windows 7 Beta was announced by the Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Its code was made available on January 10.