Windows 7 Beta Available on Friday 9th 2009

xcalibur · Jan 8, 2009

On January 9th, the Windows 7 Beta will be available for Windows enthusiasts to download via the Windows 7 page on Windows.com. The Windows 7 Beta is going to be available download-only and available for a limited time to the first 2.5 million people who download the beta. Also, another important thing to keep in mind is that the Windows 7 Beta will expire on August 1st, 2009.

Windows 7 is basically Vista SP2 but since the word "vista" is giving peple nightmares they rebranded it as Windows 7. I'm using it as of now and so far it's great. They didn't put up a exact time when it will be available for public but somewhere around noon PST is the word.

Expect heavy traffic and server down and can't connect error messages. Well getting the key is the important thing. You don't need to download it right away since it might take a lot of time due to traffic. So try to register and get a key first. If you have a MSDN or Technet sub you can download right now.

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/wi...ownloading-and-installing-windows-7-beta.aspx

Download link: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/

magicfingersny · Jan 9, 2009

Question

Do I need to have Vista on my computer now!
I have XP
I can get to the windows 7 home page
I click on plug in & it is not available
I also find the following post on the page

Thanks for your interest in the Windows 7 Beta. The volume has been phenomenal—we're in the process of adding more servers to handle the demand. We're sorry for the delay and we'll re-post the Beta as soon as we can ensure a quality download experience.

Does that means it's down or where do I go from here?

Thanks for you posting and any advice to a definite non tech

Each time I try to post this

My firefox crashed too which has never happened before

elmo16 · Jan 10, 2009

xcalibur said:

On January 9th, the Windows 7 Beta will be available for Windows enthusiasts to download via the Windows 7 page on Windows.com. The Windows 7 Beta is going to be available download-only and available for a limited time to the first 2.5 million people who download the beta. Also, another important thing to keep in mind is that the Windows 7 Beta will expire on August 1st, 2009.

Windows 7 is basically Vista SP2 but since the word "vista" is giving peple nightmares they rebranded it as Windows 7. I'm using it as of now and so far it's great. They didn't put up a exact time when it will be available for public but somewhere around noon PST is the word.

Expect heavy traffic and server down and can't connect error messages. Well getting the key is the important thing. You don't need to download it right away since it might take a lot of time due to traffic. So try to register and get a key first. If you have a MSDN or Technet sub you can download right now.

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/wi...ownloading-and-installing-windows-7-beta.aspx

Download link: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/

So now that you’ve been using it for a while, what is the main difference between it and Vista?

Zeek · Jan 10, 2009

We are looking at it, but mostly in connection with Win Sever 2008 R2 and VDI -- should have a smaller footprint in the a VDI topology.

RuffToy · Jan 10, 2009

From experience I would never touch a Microsoft product during beta trials. Let the others work out the bugs. Vista never worked out the bugs and many people are extremely pissed. Microsoft is known for putting out buggy software.

xcalibur · Jan 10, 2009

magicfingersny said:

as usual the servers couldn't handle the volume y'day and went down. But back up today. Download it here

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-download.aspx

The Windows 7 Beta ISO can be used to either
1) install in an empty HD Primary Partition, or
2) upgrade an existing Windows Vista SP1 install to Windows 7 Beta. No other upgrade path is possible with this ISO.

If you don’t want to mess-up your existing operating system, try running it on a free Virtual Machine without messing up existing operating system. VirtualBox is an open source general-purpose full virtualizer software ( create virtual machines ) for x86 hardware. This is a free alternative to commercial software like VMware, Virtual PC, Parallels. This runs on Windows, Linux, Solaris, OS X Macs.

Download and Install VirtualBox from http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads and create a Virtual Machine ( Vista ) and mount the downloaded Windows 7 beta ISO and rock on.
Once the OS is up and running, install VirtualBox Guest Additions to get proper graphics and mouse integration. VirtualBox does not support Windows 7 drivers, so You must install Guest Additions in compatibility mode. ( Open CD Drive and select properties for VBoxWindowsAdditions-x86 and in Compatibility tab ’select “Run this program in compatibility mode for in Windows Vista”.

Virtual PC 2007: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...22-6EB8-4A09-A7F7-F6C7A1F000B5&displaylang=en

If you loved XP over Vista, you may want to check these two articles out. The articles are pointing out some key differences XP users may find hard to adjust to W7. But that doesn't mean you should not try the beta yourself)

1. http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=630&tag=rbxccnbzd1

2. http://blogs.zdnet.com/perlow/?p=9360&tag=rbxccnbzd1

How to dual-boot with an existing XP installation?

try at your own risk: http://lifehacker.com/5126781/how-to-dual-boot-windows-7-with-xp-or-vista

elmo16 · Jan 10, 2009

Wireless home networking has been vastly improved in Vista, and this improvement has been extended to Blue tooth in 7. One thing that does give me pause is the use of ribbons in Windows 7.

Let me paraphrase the above post, If you dislike office 2007, you will hate Windows 7.

elmo16 · Jan 16, 2009

Over this long weekend, I'm considering making a fresh backup of my Vista Laptop to my external hard drive, downloading the Windows 7 iso, installing it and seeing whats what with 7 and then reinstalling Vista from my external hard drive.