[PANTUGGeneral] Windows 7 public beta
JP Vossen
Technology: Windows 7 Beta Released To Public After Delay
Posted by timothy on Saturday January 10, @03:31PM
from the join-the-queue-or-ubuntu dept.
Windows
Z80xxc! writes "The Windows 7 Beta release is now available for download
by the general public, in 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. Microsoft had
previously announced availability around 3 PM PST on Friday, but after
unexpected numbers of people proved to be interested in the download,
had to postpone it to add more [registration, not download -JP] servers."
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/
https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/productkeys/win7-32/enus/default.aspx
https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/productkeys/win7-64/enus/default.aspx
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was going to download it and fire it up in VMware, but:
- Minimum recommended specs call for:
* 1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor
* 1 GB of system memory
* 16 GB of available disk space
* Support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128 MB memory (for Aero)
* DVD-R/W Drive
I guess I still will, but that's going to put a nasty load on my VMware
server hardware... :-/
Hummm, the download page totally fails without JavaScript. Strike two.
OK, the page that failed is a *login* page?!? WTH does it need
Javascript to put up a username and password box. Strike three, you're
out. (Amusing rant on same:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1087813&cid=26401659)
Ah, here we go:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1087813&cid=26401517
Direct download links:
32-bit
http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/3/3/633118BD-6C3D-45A4-B985-F0FDFFE1B021/EN/7000.0.081212-1400_client_en-us_Ultimate-GB1CULFRE_EN_DVD.ISO
The 32-Bit (2.4G) link worked for me (I guess, I don't see any hashes to
verify it). I wonder if they will look at their logs and see how many
people grabbed it using a) Firefox, b) from Linux or c) using wget. I
started using A and finished using B and C.
Then there are the keys. Perhaps:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1087813&cid=26401503.
Mounting the ISO via Linux loopback (use -t udf, not iso9660):
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1087813&cid=26402313
Excerpts from:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-faq.aspx
The Beta is the full-featured edition, similar to Windows Vista
Ultimate. This is important to keep in mind, because the Windows 7 you
eventually buy or use at work may be a different edition with different
features than what you find in the Beta.
When you download the Beta you’ll be given a product key. (See
Installing the Windows 7 Beta.) Be sure to use the product key to
activate the Beta within 30 days, or the Beta’s functionality will be
limited. Your product key will work for up to three separate computers,
so if you want to install the Windows 7 Beta on another PC, you can
re-use the same key.
The Windows 7 Beta will stop working on August 1, 2009.
Enjoy,
JP
----------------------------|:::======|-------------------------------
JP Vossen, CISSP |:::======| http://bashcookbook.com/
My Account, My Opinions |=========| http://www.jpsdomain.org/
----------------------------|=========|-------------------------------
"Microsoft Tax" = the additional hardware & yearly fees for the add-on
software required to protect Windows from its own poorly designed and
implemented self, while the overhead incidentally flattens Moore's Law.
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David Dows
so if you want to install the Windows 7 Beta on another PC, you can
re-use the same key."
Oh good, I received 4 keys for each flavor (32 & 64 bit) before I
finally got the download to work, so I can run it on a dozen of my
systems, or on a dozen VMs on a few of my systems.
I finally had to give up on using FF native or IE-Tab in FF and open the
download page in IE itself, but I kept saving the keys from the 3 failed
tries.