Microsoft extends Windows 7 beta downloads to February 10

Good news for those of you who haven't yet snagged a copy of the Windows 7 beta -- Microsoft's decided to extend the beta download period to February 10th. That's the second extension we've gotten from Redmond -- the company says that interest is so high in 7 that it doesn't want anyone to miss out. So what are you waiting for? Hit the read link for the download and then snuggle up with our detailed install round-up and hands-on impressions while your bits tumble in.

[Via Computerworld]

Read - Post on Windows Team Blog
Read - Windows 7 download page

[dalismoustache Posted Jan 25th 2009 12:39PM]

Out of curiosity, I decided to install it on an *old* Dell Latitude C400 - which sports an oh-so-powerful Pentium III Mobile @ 1.2 gHz and 512mB of sweet, sweet PC-133 SDRAM. Obviously, this machine isn't a powerhouse by any means, and should be a pretty good indicator of how well the operating system scales down to the lowest rungs of the hardware food-chain.

Crazy thing is, it works.

It isn't exactly lickety-split fast (again, PIII M on a 133mhz system bus), but it runs smoothly enough, with all of the legacy hardware supported - the only caveat in hardware support came from the graphics drivers, for which I had to dig up a specific XP release in order to get full functionality.

The only other issue I've experienced is a total hard-lock when running the WEI test, specifically the Windows Media Decoding portion. Not really a huge concern, but it would be nice to see exactly how shitty Microsoft thinks my hardware is ;)

All in all, I'm really pretty impressed that the damned thing can even boot, let alone be usable on a daily basis - I just hope MS don't cock it up before it goes Final.

[clarinetJWD Posted Jan 26th 2009 11:43AM]

I'm getting the WEI too. It seems to rear its ugly head when using graphics drivers from old OSes. The nVidia drivers I installed for my setup (64 bit Vista) to get full SLI support caused the same issue.

[Wwhat Posted Jan 25th 2009 3:09PM]

Why don't you let downloaders automatically enter in the greencard lottery while you are at it, in short; only fools gives a damn about betas of MS OS's

[KeegdnaB Posted Jan 25th 2009 5:29PM]

I'm using this opportunity to download the 64-bit iso in case I decide to do a clean install later. I upgraded from 32-bit Vista because I didn't wanna bother taking the time to reinstall everything.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 26th 2009 6:22AM]

I wonder if the advertisers on the engadget screenshot in the windows7 screenshot had to pay an extra for that extra feature.

[BeDetermne Posted Jan 26th 2009 3:23PM]

Can someone please help me out. I'm not to savy when it comes to drivers and components and stuff. But I tried to upgrade my Vista to Windows 7 and I'm getting a message that I'm not able to upgrade unless I take care of one issue; Microsoft USB Sync. Can someone tell me what the hell is this and how do I go by resolving this issue. I really want to see how Windows 7 operates like the rest of you guys but I'm stumped here.

Thanks in Advance

[chuckles Posted Jan 28th 2009 12:11AM]

Comment to get password into cookie.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 2nd 2009 10:07AM]

Microsoft should make windows 7 in such way that, I can decide what I want, How the icons should look like, How the desktop should apear eg. ( 3-D, 2-D, motion video icons, ability to post whatever I want anywhere on desktop, not just dull flat icons, make it smart self adopting program. Why the hell do I still have to search internet to update my drivers, I spend $200+ for windows products over and over, and in generall they never impressed me, maybe MICROSOFT should do something for us in return. Each year I have to buy stupid INTERNET SECURITY AND ANTIVIRUS PROGRAM, becouse MICROSOFT is to lazy to create one, other then the crapy fire wall that is so anoing in BLOODY VISTA. In my opinion the biggest problem that "WINDOWS" has is compatibility issues with all the hardware and software out there. Irronic but what made "WINDOWS" a winner when it competed with APPLE Mecintosh, IBM, ATARI, COMMODORE, hardwares and operating systems, it is slowly killing it, sure before it was nice to have variety, by today there is to much junk out there, and some software has to put it together, so that it all works. I still have to give them a credit, they still manage to put it all together, sure with lots of mistakes and patches, but still it works. Unlike I-MAC, MAC since the history begun it always wanted to make and build it's own parts and software for their computers, so they could make 100% profit, (why sharing it with other parts software manufactures like PC computers did) Yes suckers want their own computer own leopard os software, so they can charge whatever they want. Even today MAC costs a lot more then PC. There is no software aviable for MAC no freaking games to choose from, just some crapy ones, why would anybody want that, even video cards and other components have to be specialy design for MAC, and they cost more. In my opinion MAC will end up just like MACINTOSH did years ago, as "nice looking comp with cool software" but expensive, and not much to add to it in therms of software and hardware. People want things universal, adaptive, smart, easy to manipulate, self correcting, secure, and FUN FUN FUN. Not some crap that needs daily maintanance. Personally I would spend $500-$1000 for operating system that would be self suficient, upgraded itself, all the drivers, scan for viruses, so I wouldn't even know, backup my files in such way that I wouldn't even have to go back and retrive it, it would just retrive original files itself and make them work, and yes computer should be idiot proof, in case you really are accidently deleting key filles, and yes, there should be a databese on internet, to prevent storing and downloading same crap over and over. And if there is an upgrade, I shouldn't be ask if I want it, duhh. If it's un upgrade is ment to be better then the previous program.duhh.. And if all goes wrong with my computer software, there should be a magic web site, which will diagnose the problem on it's own and fix it. With out me taking any part in it. All that I should need to do is reboot the computer and it will go to that site and scan my comp, access it's own back up that works 24/7 nomatter what and fix the damm thing, all I should do is go and make a coffee and comback and have fun with my comp. That's what people really want, now make it happen, and you will gain 100% of market share, unless some smart ass will make it better and compete with you. I noticed that competition is a good thing for a customers, becouse things get better and cheaper and it's a win win situation. Having one big ass company like MICROSOFT makes us pay more and get less, becouse they don't care, not much competition out there to compite with so they make people desperate. As a conclusion, I DON'T CARE WHO MAKES WHAT AS LONG AS IT IS AS CLOSE TO BEING PERFECT AND FUN AS THEY CAN MAKE IT, WITHOUT HOLES IN MY POCKET.