Birmingham makes the cut, as an official desktop wallpaper in Windows 7 RC1…

There’s also this wallpaper, which is certainly a departure from earlier Windows wallpapers…

Download them all here (they’re all 1920 x 1200-pixels widescreen). Not sure if they’ll all make it to the final retail versions, or not — but let’s hope so.

I liked Vista, but I also like what I hear about Windows 7 — and am certainly thinking of a Vista > Windows 7 RC1 upgrade over the summer. I’m hoping Windows 7 will have Vista’s rock-solid stability, but combined with the speed of XP. And the new virtualised single-desktop ‘XP mode’ in Windows 7 sounds like it’ll be useful for keeping in touch with those old-but-fave videogames.