[phileysmiley]

Updated January 9, 2009
Windows 7 Beta Released to the Public

Windows 7 x86 iso: Download @ Microsoft

Windows 7 x64 iso: Download @ Microsoft

As we reported the other day there are 2.5 million keys to go around worldwide so plenty in other words. Microsoft is also providing a QFE patch for the MP3 corruption issues that have plagued build 7000, this should be online shortly as KB961367. It's extremely important you apply this patch as you may lose parts of your MP3s if the patch is not applied. 32bit and 64bit patches are now available.

Updated January 10, 2009

Follow THIS procedure to obtain an activation key from Microsoft

 
Windows 7 Public Beta Soon
by Arie Slob
December 13, 2008

There have been several reports that indicate that a public beta of Windows 7 would be available in early January. What's more, according to several sources (ZDNet's Ed Bott, Internet News.com Andy Patrizio and last week WinInfo's Paul Thurrott) Windows 7 will ship this summer (a June 2009 shipping date is being mentioned) - way earlier than Microsoft has (so far) indicated.

Some people are thinking that a June 2009 ship date is not likely. This is roughly 31 months after Vista went RTM (Release To Manufacturing). I'll just point out that Microsoft shipped Windows XP only 20 months after Windows 2000, so a 31 month development cycle for Windows 7 would certainly be a possibility. Most people will remember the painful Windows Vista development cycle, which took 63 months from the day Windows XP went RTM to its own RTM. Microsoft is determined not to let that happen again.

One should also keep in mind that the changes from Windows Vista to Windows 7 are comparable to the changes Microsoft made when it went from Windows 2000 to Windows XP, so although the beta cycle for Windows 7 looks to be very short, it looks plausible.

[kanaloa]

Furthermore, I've been reading up on this too - and found a few surprises.

The three post-M3 builds are all reportedly stable and appear to be near-feature-complete. This seemingly supports the notion that Microsoft will be able to ship this new OS far more quickly than most people realize. This is no Vista foot dragging. Some folks have been bold enough to say they're expecting to see Windows 7 finalized by mid-spring or early summer 2009, alongside Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2).

Now that'd be a shocker... and from all reports, might be the Vista-fix in the business world.

[rebeldawg]

So far build 6956 has been really stable except when a few
uncompatible programs was installed which caused it to crash.
After uninstalling them, it was back to being more stable than
Windows Vista.

[shreader]

Found this over at the msdn Channel9...
This was put up on the Welcome to Windows 7 webside accidentally last month.

What to look for & where to go around the end of next week, hopefully




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

[phileysmiley]

W000ttt!!!! Something new to play with.

[yeshuas]

I downloaded the Windows 7 build 7000 and it seems to run nice, and I have it on a Dell Latitude laptop with a celeron 1.73 GHz processor. Can't wait to get my test MB back and get the legal beta loaded on it.

[kanaloa]

I'm looking forward to the Beta too. I'd love to try it on my primary PC, but will probably just use the laptop I took Vista off about two years ago. Hopefully the installation and uninstall process is very similar to Vista and I can use the same guides we've made.

[shreader]

It looks like this (Chinese) site is getting ready to supply downloads

TechNet Evaluation Center
Recently released download
Windows 7 Beta
Windows 7 to explore how to help IT organizations better manage and protect the client infrastructure, and to learn more about IT professionals can increase productivity of important new features. Exploration in the organization to test, test and deploy Windows 7 necessary tools and resources.

Translated:
TechNet Evaluation Center

[kd1966]

I've been checking MS Conect daily...................

[yeshuas]

One of the worst places for pirated software????? Oh yeah that is where I want to release software even beta software first!!!!!!!!!!!!!!