Microsoft confirmed on Monday that Windows 7 has not yet hit the "Release to Manufacturing" (RTM) milestone; thereby nullifying the rumors that the company is about to declare to declare RTM.

The Windows blog has the Microsoft spokesman, Brandon LeBlanc, saying: "We are close, but have not yet signed off on Windows 7. When we RTM, you will most certainly hear it here. As we've said all along, we will RTM Windows 7 when it's ready. As previously stated, we expect Windows 7 to RTM in the 2nd half of July."

The statement by LeBlanc reiterated an earlier comment made by Bill Veghte - Microsoft's Senior VP for Windows business - who had said that Windows 7 would be bundled up in the last two weeks of July. However, Veghte did not make any reference to a last week report that claimed RTM was 'about to happen.'

The rumors about Microsoft having reached its goal of RTM started making rounds of late apparently because of a leak in Windows 7 build 7600 and Windows Server
2008 R2 build 7600.

In his statement, LeBlanc has also alerted users against the download if the in-progress builds that have leaked to file-sharing sites. He said: "There are many bogus copies of Windows 7 floating around the Internet. More often than not, they contain a rather nice malware payload."