Windows 7 Public Beta Available Friday

Thursday, January 8, 2009 by Island Dog | Discussion: WinCustomize News

Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, kicked off CES 2009 last night with his keynote speech in which he announced the Windows 7 beta will be available for public download, this Friday. This will be a download-only version, and will expire in August. They haven't announced yet at what time it will be available, but it will only be for a limited time to the first 2.5 million downloaded.

Get more info at the link below.


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scott57
Reply #41 Saturday, January 10, 2009 9:39 AM

 Thanks

butch123
Reply #42 Saturday, January 10, 2009 10:13 AM

For people who didnt get product key

And you can get Product keys using following links:

Get Product Key for 32-bit https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/productkeys/win7-32/enus/default.aspx

Get Product Key for 64-bit https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/productkeys/win7-64/enus/default.aspx

Login using your Live passport account. You might need to refresh the page lots of time as the servers are very busy.

starkers
Reply #43 Saturday, January 10, 2009 10:55 AM

Yeah, I was just about ready to give up and go to bed (was 12.40 am at the time here in Oz), but thought I'd give it one more go before shutting down the beast for the night.  I'm glad I did... after about half a dozen page refreshes I got the license key page up with all the relevant details.

Yup, I'm pretty pleased, but for now the rest can wait cos I've been up now for 23 1/2 hours and it's bedtime... got no blank DVD's 'til morning anyhow.

CarGuy1
Reply #44 Saturday, January 10, 2009 12:24 PM

Your download should be in the format of an ISO file so with Power ISo or whatever extract the file, then with Nero or Roxio burn it (make it to DVD).

You would be better off to burn the ISO directly with Nero instead of extracting it first. That way the DVD will be bootable.

PuterDudeJim
Reply #45 Saturday, January 10, 2009 4:11 PM

You would be better off to burn the ISO directly with Nero instead of extracting it first. That way the DVD will be bootable.
I used Roxio, but yes, I burned the ISO and made it a bootable DVD. Tried to dual boot with vista, but the installation would not see the drive I was trying to put it on, so I installed on my lappy.

PuterDudeJim
Reply #46 Saturday, January 10, 2009 4:14 PM

Butch, have you heard anything about MS giving free upgrades in August? I doubt it's true, but I read it somewhere. I think it was an article about 5 reasons why MS is giving free upgrades. BTW, thanx for the key!

PuterDudeJim
Reply #47 Saturday, January 10, 2009 4:30 PM

Getting ready to install Impulse!!

butch123
Reply #48 Saturday, January 10, 2009 4:36 PM

PuterDudeJim
Butch, have you heard anything about MS giving free upgrades in August? I doubt it's true, but I read it somewhere. I think it was an article about 5 reasons why MS is giving free upgrades. BTW, thanx for the key!

 

I gues you what you mean is that anybody that buys a computer in July or August on is going to be entitled to a free update to Windows 7 but you know Microsoft LOL....

PuterDudeJim
Reply #49 Saturday, January 10, 2009 4:38 PM

I guess I thought it meant free upgrades from beta to full version...silly me.

Robbie_Boy
Reply #50 Saturday, January 10, 2009 5:17 PM

ok started my download wich is going to take 20 hours.....

and my key is ready and waiting........ 

PuterDudeJim
Reply #51 Saturday, January 10, 2009 9:10 PM

I have been trying Stardock products on 7. Here is some results, BTW Neil says " UNDER ON CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU TRY BOOTSKIN PRO ON WINDOWS 7!!"

https://forums.wincustomize.com/336036/page/1/#2015030

PuterDudeJim
Reply #52 Saturday, January 10, 2009 9:13 PM

OOPS

starkers
Reply #53 Saturday, January 10, 2009 11:13 PM

ok started my download wich is going to take 20 hours.....

Whoa... 20 hours???

Well my mouth, mine took just 4hours 46mins to complete... that was the 3.5 gig W7 x64 version.

Leo the Lion
Reply #54 Sunday, January 11, 2009 1:06 AM

So guys what are your first impressions?????????............

I must say I am very impressed.............

Speed and responsiveness is always two of my main concerns..........and I'm amazed. I installed 7 on a three year old laptop with an AMD Turion processor with a gig of ram and a very lightweight graphics card and it flies along........Just as quick as XP.

I'm using IE8 on it and thats flipping round the net like a mad thing............

No compatability problems.............It found several drivers that I needed and installed them...........All hardware is working fine.

Has the WMP had an update?.............replay quality on music seems better

It's a least six months away from being released.............and it's this good already !!!!!

 

  

Leo the Lion
Reply #55 Sunday, January 11, 2009 1:52 AM

And here's a great article that talks about many of the changes. A really useful read:-

http://mintywhite.com/tech/windows-7/will-windows-7-be-a-worthwhile-upgrade/

starkers
Reply #56 Sunday, January 11, 2009 6:41 AM

First impressions....

Installation of W7 x64 was quick and seamless, completed in just over 16 minutes... clean install not an upgrade

Startup is much better than Vista's... cuts out the logo screen and goes straight from a 'sort o'f bootscreen to logon to desktop in just under 30 seconds.

Over-all system speed is appreciably faster than both Vista and XP, the UI is slick, well laid out/presented and feels smooth to use... over-all MS has streamlined the GUI and access to Windows apps and functions is much better than in previous incarnations.

The shutdown on the start menu is much improved... now there is a main button with various sleep, logoff and shutdown options.

I like the new wallpaper function that allows time alterable slideshow feature... and for Aussies selecting the Oz location option an Aussie wallpaper theme pack.  Oh, and the new interactive taskbar thumbnails are excellent.

I like the fact that MS dropped the sidebar on this one... in Vista that was a resource sucking hog with no use or practicality for me... yet the sidebar gadgets are still there should one want or need them.

I seems also that MS may have done away with 'Ultimate Extras'... also another good thing cos most of that is bloat anyhow, like who needs Dreamscene when we have Deskscapes... right!

Windows Media Player has had a facelift... the UI mightn't be as flashy as in Vista, but it is clean looking and WMP  seems to sound better when playing MP3 or WMA files.

My internet connection seems rather slow at times, however, but I think that may be due to a wireless driver thing... W7 is now updating the Netgear drivers so that may very well resolve that issue.

Another strange thing was that my media drive was not showing up in 'Computer'... although it was appearing in 'Disk Management'  It took a little while to figure out why not, but I was able to bring it on line easily enough.  For some odd and unexplained reason this partition did not have a letter assigned, so it was as simple as assigning it a letter and voila, it was there.

I haven't delved into it too deeply as yet, but early indications are that W7 is superior and a more user friendly OS than Vista was at the same stage... and is now, so yeah, the finished item is a must when it becomes available on the shelf.

starkers
Reply #57 Sunday, January 11, 2009 7:14 AM

Oh yeah, the UAC is nowhere near the pain in the arse intrusive as Vista's... I don't have it turned off, yet it certainly isn't as bothersome as Vista's is on the lower elevation using TweakVista.  Dunno if it'll keep asking permissions on previously allowed items as I haven't got that far, but installing Firefox only took the one permission, not 2 like in Vista with UAC fully turned on.

And file move/copy/transfer is decidedly faster than in Vista.... no more of that 'calculating' crap, it just gets stuck into it and is done in no time.

starkers
Reply #58 Sunday, January 11, 2009 8:22 AM
Well I figured out why my internet is slow... excruciatingly so, and it has nothing to do with wireless drivers. I have a 25gb per month package that reverts to dial-up speed when the allowable amount is reach... and yeah, the 3.5gb Windows 7 download helped push me/us over the top. Normally 25gb is ample, but I've had some heavy duty downloads this month and obviously exceeded our monthly limit. Dunno how anybody could live with dial-up, it's bloody woeful. Oh well, it's only for a day and our account resets to broadband, thank goodness.
vStyler
Reply #59 Sunday, January 11, 2009 8:35 AM

mine took 55 mins to dl

Robbie_Boy
Reply #60 Sunday, January 11, 2009 10:53 AM

Crap it only got to 1.86 Gigs and stoped downloading and the iso don't work.....

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