It will be the second time that Microsoft has released phony updates for Windows 7; in February, it by delivering five bogus patches.

People running Windows 7 RC, which publicly debuted late on May 4, will be offered the mock updates beginning on Tuesday, May 12, said Brandon LeBlanc, a Microsoft spokesman. Microsoft wants to "verify our ability to deliver and manage updating of Windows 7 in certain real-life scenarios," LeBlanc explained in a .

As before, the updates do not actually deliver any new features or fixes, but replace existing system files with exact duplicates.

Unlike the February test, however, this time many of the updates will install automatically, according to a second blog entry on the site. One of the updates will also test a new notification feature, said the update blog. "[It] provides detailed information about available updates that need to be installed manually," Microsoft said. "Windows 7 RC users will be prompted to install this update and provided more information about this feature -- it will not install automatically."

Users will also need to go to Windows Update and manually install the updates that don't install automatically, the update team added.