Yesterday Robert broke the news that the official beta of Windows 7 Service Pack 1 has been released by Microsoft. His article contained the relevant information about the upcoming service pack, and the information that it was available for download for Technet subscribers only.

That last sentence was not entirely correct, as Windows 7 SP1 is offered to non-Technet subscribers as well, providing that they are working in IT or as developers.

The Technet Evaluation Center page links to the download registration. A Windows Live ID is required, as is the selection of the right occupation before the downloads are shown. IT Manager or developer will do fine on this screen.

Windows 7 SP1 Beta is offered via Windows Update or as an ISO image that needs to be burned before it can be used and tested.

windows 7 service pack

A small program is downloaded if the Windows Update option is selected. This tool will enable the service pack download in Windows Update, we have uploaded the 32-bit and 64-bit tool to our server for your convenience.

• WUSignUpTool_x86
• WUSignUpTool_x64

windows update windows7 sp1

It usually takes a moment before the updates become available via Windows Update. An important update is offered prior to the Service Pack 1 update.

Windows 7 users who ponder with the though of installing the update should consider the following: The Windows 7 SP1 will not add new features to the operating system which means that there is not a reason to install it on a home system.

The beta will expire on June 30, 2011 and needs to be either uninstalled or upgraded before that date.

System Requirements

*Windows 7 Minimum System Requirements:

* 1 GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
* 1 GB of RAM (32-bit) / 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
* 16 GB available disk space (32-bit) / 20 GB (64-bit)
* DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
* DVD-compatible drive
* Internet access (fees may apply)

Uninstallation of Windows 7 SP1

The easiest way to uninstall SP1 Beta is using Programs and Features.

If you’ve used the Disk Cleanup Wizard since you’ve installed SP1 Beta, the backup files needed to uninstall the service pack might have been removed from your computer. If that’s the case, then use System Restore to uninstall the service pack.

1. Click the Start button Picture of the Start button, click Control Panel, click Programs, and then click Programs and Features.
2. Click View installed updates.
3. Click Service Pack for Microsoft Windows (KB 976932), and then click Uninstall.

If you don’t see Service Pack for Microsoft Windows (KB 976932) in the list of installed updates, or if the uninstall option is disabled, use System Restore to uninstall the service pack.

Additional resources:

* Deployment Guide for Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1 and Windows 7 with SP1 [link]
* Documentation for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 Beta (KB976932) [link]

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Downloads was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Today Office 2010 finally went on sale for the general public and along with that Microsoft decided to release the download figures it had for its Beta test. According to their figures, the Office 2010 beta was even bigger than the Windows 7 beta. Office 2010 beta was downloaded over 9 million times since it’s launch in early November. By comparison, the Windows 7 Beta campaign was downloaded over 8 million times.

Much like Windows 7, the Office 2010 beta had a good reception, and I’m sure the guys from Redmond are hoping that this will translate into strong sales as just as Windows 7 did. But in an increasingly competitive market, I wonder can they be as successful as previous editions.

“Following the great response to the Office 2010 beta and the success of Windows 7, we predict this will be the biggest consumer release of Office, ever,”

Stephen Elop, president, Microsoft Business Division, said.

So I wonder if Office 2010 will be the raging success that Windows 7 was, and is. To date Microsoft have sold well in excess of 100 million copies of Windows 7 in the 6 months it’s been available.

Office 2010 is certainly one of Microsoft’s main products, and they are hoping that it will be a big earner for them. And so far, according to a survey carried out on Office 2010 testers, the outlook is bright. 75% of early adopters revealed that they would purchase Office 2010 once it became available and 90% of the Beta users revealed that Office 2010 was superior to its predecessor, Office 2007.

Have you grabbed your copy of Office 2010 yet? Will you?

Let us know in the comments

Office 2010 Beta Bigger Than Windows 7 Beta was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Part of Windows 7 success was undoubtedly related to the extensive pre-release program that Microsoft had in operation prior to the official release of the RTM on the 22nd October 2009. The Windows 7 Beta 1 was released back in January of 2009 and began shutting down every 2 hours from the 2nd of July.

The Windows 7 RC 1 was then released in May of 2009 and there was an unlimited number of licenses available to the public so they could download and try out Windows 7 for themselves. We all knew that the Windows 7 Release Candidate ( Build 7100 ) was going to suffer the same fate as the Beta builds, so a month from today, the 1st of March, the Windows 7 RC 1 will begin shutting down automatically every 2 hours.

Windows 7 will automatically start alerting you to the fact that your copy of Windows is about to expire 2 weeks prior ( February 15th ) to the deadline of March the 1st. On June 1st 2010, if for some reason you are still running Windows 7 RC 1, the non-genuine experience will be triggered and your license will expire. What this means is that your wallpaper will be removed and “This copy of Windows is not genuine” will be displayed in the lower right corner of your desktop, above the taskbar.

So if you want to continue using Windows 7 and are running the Release Candidate ( you can tell by going to Start -> Right Click “My Computer” -> Properties ) you need to buy and install a copy of Windows 7 RTM. For information on upgrading from the RC to the official RTM of Windows 7, see our guides here, here and here. If you’re unsure on whether or not you need to perform an upgrade or clean install, see our guide here. Just remember that Microsoft don’t officially support upgrading from the Windows 7 RC to the RTM.

Now you have ample time to go out and purchase the final copy of Windows 7, back up all your data and install the Official RTM edition of Windows 7 before your system begins shutting down every 2 hours on you.

Don’t Forget – Windows 7 RC Begins To Shutdown In 1 Month was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

On Monday I attended a small Windows 7 Launch event in London attended by around 100 people, which featured a 45 minute or so session with Steve Ballmer.

It was a bit strange seeing Steve Ballmer in the flesh for the first time.  He was a lot smaller than I expected – probably cause he looks larger than life on Youtube!  I wimped out on taking photos of the event because nobody else was taking photos apart from the guy sitting next to me who was trying to take snaps discretely on his iphone (which I thought was very brave), and I didn’t want to look like Steve’s number one fan…In Steve Ballmer’s presentation he did mention some Windows 7 facts I hadn’t come across before:

• Windows 7 was tested globally by 8m users with 700k in the UK
• In UK trials, businesses have seen savings of between £100-150 in annual support costs.  Steve Ballmer even used my old employer (I left last month-was how I managed to get an invite) as an example.  I was impressed that he knew that they were moving to Windows 7 in a 100k+ employee deployment following favourable tests, although he did neglect to mention that they were moving from XP to Windows 7 after deciding to skip Windows Vista…
• That despite the poor perception that Windows Vista had, it’s a myth that people didn’t upgrade  -the same number of users moved from XP–>Vista as moved from windows 95–>XP

In the Q&A session Steve Ballmer expressed his hopes that users would buy new PCs with Windows 7 rather than buying new machines running XP or Vista.  Steve said that by making XP ‘End of life’ from a support perspective, Microsoft hoped this would move new PC customers upwards to Windows 7.

“We hope that in the first three to six months we will have made the case that [new PCs] should come with Windows 7. If customers have been doing testing with Vista, that should make it easier to move. You’ll see us work hard to make Windows 7 the default choice on new PCs, whether you decide to move your entire installed base or not,” he said.

One question was fielded asking whether Windows 7 would be Microsoft’s last operating system.  Steve Ballmer said no, as the Microsoft teams are already working on Windows 8 and Windows 9, and that client OSs are here to stay for at least 10 years:

“After Vista, many in the media said that it’d be the last Windows release ever, but there’s still a lot of work to do. We don’t have voice and gesture recognition built in, and you can’t have everything seamlessly managed from the cloud yet,” he said.

Steve Ballmer also pointed to the fact that other companies are working hard on OSs, so there was still plenty of work to be done.  He poked fun at Google a couple of times:

“Google have two [OS] in Chrome and Android…I’m not sure why they are building two “

I’m glad I attended as it was quite refreshing to see Steve Ballmer speak quite candidly about the plans for Windows 7, but also because (as I’d hoped!) all attendees got a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate to take home with them.

Steve Ballmer Wants All New PCs To Ship With Windows 7 was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) is an anti-malware product that works via the cloud, a successor to OneCare, and contains quite a bit of promise. The beta versions had a strong ability to detect and remove malware, and as the product grows, its strength will only increase as more and more users automatically submit telemetry to the cloud. Even so, MSE already has a strong base, with 400,000 testers during the beta release.

MSE will also be completely free (assuming that your operating system passing the WGA test), matching the company’s belief in anti-virus software. The program is mainly being marketed as a lightweight, effective solution especially meant for those who do not currently have existing protection (estimated at 50-60% of users) or consumers whose anti-virus suite has expired, leaving them open to attacks by malware.

As for the release date, according to a message sent to participants of the beta, Microsoft plans to release the final version of MSE soon: “the final version of Microsoft Security Essentials will be released to the public in the coming weeks.” In the meantime, feel free to give the beta a try, and potentially helping to improve the product:

Just make sure that you meet the system requirements, as outlined by the Redmond giant on the official page for Security Essentials:

• Operating System: Windows XP (Service Pack 2 or Service Pack 3); Windows Vista; Windows 7 (Beta or Release Candidate)
• For Windows XP, a Personal Computer with a:
  • CPU with clock speed of 500 MHz or higher
  • Memory: 256 MB RAM or higher
• For Windows Vista and Windows 7, a Personal Computer with a:
  • CPU with clock speed of 1.0 GHz or higher
  • Memory: 1 GB RAM or higher
• VGA (Display): 800 x 600 or higher
• Storage: 140 MB of available hard-disk space
• An Internet connection.
• Internet Browser:
  • Windows Internet Explorer 6.0 or later
  • Mozilla Firefox 2.0 or later

Feel free to leave a comment below describing your experiences with the software.

Microsoft Security Essentials Final On The Way was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

For those users running Windows Live Essentials, the software suite offered by Microsoft, Wave 3 has been updated once again, and this time, Movie Maker is finally gold (out of the beta stage).

The exact list of build changes is listed over at Ars Technica:

• Messenger: 14.0.8089.726 (previous build was 14.0.8064.206)
• Mail: 14.0.8089.0726 (previous build was 14.0.8064.206)
• Photo Gallery: 14.0.8081.709 (previous build was 14.0.8064.206)
• Movie Maker: 14.0.8091.0730 (previous build was 14.0.8064 beta)
• Writer: 14.0.8089.726 (previous build was 14.0.8064.206)
• Toolbar: 14.00.8064.0206 (previous build was 14.0.8064.206)
• Family Safety: 14.0.8093.0805 (previous build was 14.0.8064.0206)

The new suite can be downloaded from Microsoft on the official Windows Live page, although no word has yet been released by Microsoft as to the exact changes in each application, other than Movie Maker or Family Safety.

According to an email to Ars by Microsoft, the changes in Family Safety are as follows:

Based on customer feedback, the newest version of Family Safety features tighter integration with Windows User Accounts and Windows Parental Controls. This results in a seamless login experience and enhanced reporting capabilities to help parents understand what their kids are doing on the computer and online. We have also made enhancements for web browsing such as locking Safe Search for children and helping them find sites designed for kids with http://fss.live.com/kids. These updates will make Windows Live Family Safety easier for parents to get started, and it’s easier for them to keep their kids safer online.

No changelist for Movie Maker have been released, at the moment, the only known change (other than almost insignificant changes such as UI differences), is that Movie Maker is now Gold.

Even so, Microsoft claims that they had to update the build numbers on the rest of the applications from a technical perspective in order to update Windows Live Essentials, but many users are holding their breath for a late announcement. At the moment, there are also no official reports of Wave 4.

Windows Live Essentials Updated was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Microsoft has now released final RTM builds of 32 and 64 bit Windows 7 to technical beta-testers, with them each getting a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate.  This is exclusively for the 5,000 or so technical testers who received invitations onto the program from Microsoft, and not the people who downloaded the public beta.

Later, volume licencees and Software Assurance customers will be able to download it followed by Action Pack subscribers on August 23rd.

This marks a sad day for technical testers and those who downloaded the public beta.  We’ll have to wait another two and half years to get something flaky that’ll crash our systems and cause driver errors.  What’s more if Windows 8, and I predict that will be its name as 8 is a lucky number in the far east, is anything like Windows 7 in the beta, we won’t even get that luxury.  Ho hum.

There are reports of slow downloads from some quarters but that’s only to be expected at this stage.  Things will no doubt improve within a couple of days and Microsoft’s servers seem to be holding steady.

Windows 7 Ultimate released to Beta testers on Connect was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

In a message entitled Information on getting your Windows 7 RTM ”Thank you” copy, Microsoft today released details to people who had been invited onto the technical-beta programme for Windows 7 of how to get their complimentary copy of Windows 7 Ultimate as a thank you.

The message on the Connect website reads.

 Instructions and details for free RTM Windows 7

• Both the download option and the boxed product will include x86 and x64.
• In both cases your product key will activate your choice of one of these.
• Downloads will be available to members of the Technical Beta Program on August 6^th.
• We are not offering evaluation copies as download therefore only those who choose download as an option will have access to the download images.
• We can only ship boxed product to the shipping address you have on file with Connect.  Please make sure it is up to date.
• Because there will be a limited amount of boxed product available we will notify you no later than the end of day August 6^th as to whether we were able to fulfill your request.  If not, we will automatically convert your request to a download.
• Members of our international “Mini beta” efforts do not need to do anything yet.  Starting August 6^th you will be given access to downloads and over the next several weeks we will ensure all languages are posted and available to you.

 Please fill out the survey to register your choice.

Microsoft are offering this after previously saying that technical testers wouldn’t receive a free copy of Windows 7.  Anybody who downloaded the beta from the MSDN or public beta site is not eligible for the offer.

These are the first full copies of Windows 7 to be released, at least officially, to individuals.

Tech-testers ‘almost’ have their copy of Windows 7 Ultimate was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

In what can only be described as a u-turn, Microsoft today announced on the Windows team blog that technical beta testers WILL get a copy of Windows 7 after all, putting the original announcement that they wouldn’t down to a silly mistake.

I wrote last week about my experience as a technical tester in which I criticised Microsoft for leaving testers feeling undervalued and, essentially, used.  I also took this up with Microsoft and got a very nice email in reply, that annoyingly I can’t disclose, from someone I can only describe as very senior.  In that email I was told that Microsoft accepted that they could have done things differently and that, with the benefit of hindsight, they will try and see if mistakes were made (I’m deliberately watering this down for legal reasons).  The individual told me they would post to the Windows blog when they had a formal announcement to make on the future of technical testing with Microsoft.

The announcement today said…

Last week, I blogged that members of the Windows Technical Beta Program would not be receiving a complimentary copy of Windows 7. Normally I hate to be wrong but in this case, I’m stoked that I am.

To show our appreciation, members of the invitation-only Windows 7 Technical Beta Program will be eligible for a free, final copy of Windows 7 Ultimate

With Windows Vista the only testers to receive a free copy were those who had submitted at least one bug report.  That, as I understand it amounted to about 5,000 testers which is also the amount of testers who have been on the Windows 7 beta programme.  These two could be linked or they might not.

As a technical tester I feel this does count as a thank you from Microsoft and I applaud their generosity.  Technical testers have given many hours of time and effort into helping make Windows 7 the solid product it is, and were feeding back huge amounts of information to Microsoft.  The traffic on the connect beta site was, I can assure you, quite substantial.

UPDATED

The newsgroup post mentioned in the article is only available to technical testers… however 

It reads…

Thank you for doing your part in making Windows 7 great! As a member of the technical beta program you took the time to download, install and give us your feedback on Windows 7 during development. Over the last 7 months you have participated in chats, live meetings and newsgroups as well as reported bugs to help us find and fix many issues. To recognize your outstanding contribution to the product we are pleased to offer you a complimentary copy of Windows 7 for your personal use.

Details:

·         All current members of our English technical and international mini-beta programs are eligible.

·         We are offering you a full (non-upgrade) copy of Windows 7 Ultimate Edition for your own personal use, not to be resold.

·         You will be able to get access to your copy one of two ways:

A)     To get up and running quickly you will be able to download your copy and get your product key via Microsoft Connect. English downloads will be available August 6th and other languages will follow as they become available.

B)     Members of our English beta program have an alternative. We have reserved a limited amount of boxed retail copies that you can choose to receive instead. These are ‘first come, first served’. If you opt to have us ship you the boxed copy you should be aware that it will take much longer until you will be up and running on the final version. We will need time to manufacture and ship the copies to you. This means that you may not receive them until they are available on shelves October 22nd or later. Also, for people outside the United States you may be required to pay duties or other local taxes upon receipt.

Instructions and forms for choosing one of the above options will be available on Microsoft Connect on Monday August 3rd.

On behalf of the entire Windows product team, THANK YOU!

Paul

Tech testers WILL get a copy of Windows 7 [UPDATED] was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Unfortunately for most Intel users, when it came down to obtaining drivers for Windows 7, some users were left in the dirt with no support and no mention of support from Intel. However, thanks to a quick eye over at Icrontic, we now know that Intel has now released an entire beta suite of GMA, ACHI/SATA, and chipset drivers. It seems as though Intel is finally beginning support for Windows 7, even though AMD has been doing it for months.

And as always, there’s a pretty dire disclaimer:

These drivers are provided to facilitate any initial system evaluation with Windows 7* and are not considered “production quality”. These drivers are provided on AS IS basis with no further responsibilities on fixing issues reported to Intel Customer Support.

Interestingly enough, it seems as though Intel has released an x64 and x86 version of every driver, but for every version of Windows 7. That means that Intel has provided drivers for the Ultimate/Enterprise, Professional, and Home Premium (and for now, RC1) along with a universal driver for just “Windows 7.”

GMA

Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) Drivers

Icrontic describes this as a “hit and miss process:”

These are going to be hit and miss for users with older integrated adapters, as many of them were retired long ago. Owners of a mobile or desktop product featuring the 910, 915, 945, 946, 963, Q965, G965, 965 Express, G/Q4x or G/Q3x chipsets are in luck, however, as an official Windows 7 driver is available for your adapter.

ACHI/SATA

Matrix Storage Manager 8.9.0.1023

This driver provides support for high-capacity & fault-tolerant Serial ATA (SATA) RAID 5 arrays and high-performance & fault-tolerant SATA RAID 10 arrays on select Intel® 4 Series, 3 Series, 965, 975X, 955X and 945 chipset-based platforms. It provides support for high-performance SATA RAID 0 arrays & redundant SATA RAID 1 arrays on select Intel® 4 Series, 3 Series, 965, 975X, 955X, 945, 925, 915 chipset-based platforms. It also provides AHCI support on select Intel® 4 Series, 3 Series, 965, 975X, 955X, 945, 925 and 915 chipset-based platforms, as well as on Mobile Intel® 915/910 chipset-based platforms.

Note: Intel® RAID Technology requires the Intel® ICH9R/ICH9M-E/ICH10R SATA RAID controller hub, Intel® 82801HR I/O controller hub (ICH8R), Intel® 631xESB/632xESB I/O controller hub, Intel® 82801GR/GH I/O controller hub (ICH7R/DH), Intel® 82801FR I/O controller hub (ICH6R).

Chipset

Chipset Device Software 9.1.1.1015

The Intel® Chipset Device Software installs the Windows* INF files. The INF files inform the operating system how to properly configure the chipset for specific functionality, such as USB and core PCI.

This download is intended for use with Intel® Desktop Boards.

Icrontic also provided drivers that are slipstream friendly:

You might note that these AHCI/SATA drivers come bundled in an executable which puts the kibosh on using them during the Windows 7 install. This isn’t a deal-breaker as Microsoft provides generic AHCI/SATA drivers for just such an occasion, but we busted ‘em loose so you can use Intel’s goods during the install routine. Grab the drivers from this link: Right here!

On a side note, Intel users may not have been left in the dirt, as a post on the Microsoft Partner Blog reveals:

Intel and Microsoft have a relationship that spans more than 20 years. Our collaboration today is in full swing across many fronts, but today is a day where we are very excited to see the RTM of Windows 7. Intel began working with Microsoft at the very beginning of the Windows 7 development process. In that process, we saw unique opportunities to optimize Windows 7 for Intel processor technology, to deliver PCs that are more powerful and easier to use. Our technical collaboration focused on multiple areas, including performance and responsiveness; energy efficiency/power management/battery life; and graphics and multi-media.

Just to elaborate on better performance and responsiveness. Working with Intel, Microsoft implemented a new feature called SMT parking, which provided additional support for the Windows 7 scheduler for Intel Hyper-threading Technology, enabling better performance on hyper-threaded, multi-core Intel processors. This will help users get the maximum benefit from multi-tasking. Also, Intel and Microsoft jointly analyzed the boot/shutdown/sleep/resume times on Intel platforms during the development of Windows 7 to identify opportunities to optimize Intel drivers and BIOS as well as Windows 7. Our mutual goal was to provide the most responsive compute experience possible. Another key part of the performance and responsiveness was our collaboration to optimize Intel Solid State Drive technology for Windows 7.

So if you’re using these new drivers provided by Intel, feel free to drop a line in the comments describing your experience so far.

Intel Drivers for Windows 7 Released was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

The previously rumored leak has been confirmed.

Wzor has placed the download links to the Windows 7 RTM on their home page, and it definitely the real deal. The build string is:
6.1.7600.16384.win7_rtm.090710-1945

[Show as slideshow]

1234...141516►

This build string is a huge jump from the build before the RTM, and it also has a valid digital signature (cannot be faked). This is straight out of Microsoft, and has been leaked to major P2P sites (x64 only so far) (the original torrent is on Wzor). Windows 7 Server 2008 has also been leaked (again, only as x64), and the Beta version of Office 2010 has been leaked too (x86 and x64).

Although the title for the Office 2010 Beta still says “Technical Preview,” the build number confirms the Beta (14.0.4302.1000).

Now, onto the file details (the good stuff):

Windows 7 7600 RTM (x64):
7600.16384.090710-1945_x64fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULXFRER_EN_DVD.iso
Size: 3,224,717,312 bytes
CRC32: 1EE7DC6F
MD5: E6CE9644D0C7A8E1C950D257A7B2C8A4
SHA-1: 31849B315290EFABFD81F967ED3C553D82925E4C

Windows 7 Server 2008 RTM (x64):
7600.16384.amd64fre.win7_rtm.090710-1945.serverenterprise_en-us_vl. serverenterprise.vhd or file-tracker.ru
SIZE: 6,857,337,856 bytes
CRC: 2AA7974F
SHA1: EA13B569AD4EA4F34955D1FB8A7ADFF8A30297E6
MD5: EC65EE9F3B18F7A232F8B0073A02216A

Office 2010 Beta (x86):
14.0.4302.1000_Mondo_volume_ship_x86_en-us_wzt
Size: 798,101,835 bytes
CRC32: 8BE7AB28
MD5: 874AE2B75AD8FAF169784AFEC099B526
SHA-1: E8E13E9DF771314C2B8A615B4952A49DDE3C9117

Office 2010 Beta (x64):
14.0.4302.1000_Mondo_volume_ship_x64_en-us_wzt
Size: 893,402,501 bytes
CRC32: 7CBEF7DF
MD5: 24A46B000B79520969508CF940D6D581
SHA-1: E22690C6E63ACF0D0BDF9588E8308C5C855A38BC

Keep watch here on Windows 7 News for the report of the x86 leak of the Windows 7 RTM and the Server 2008 RTM.

CONFIRMED – Windows 7 RTM, Server 2008, and Office 2010 Beta Leaked was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

As the beta for Windows 7 draws to a close there are questions over whether it was a ‘good’ beta process or not.  I’ve been a technical tester for Microsoft for some years now and I’ll be writing a full unbiased review of the beta soon.  However one of the most important questions to ask was “did Microsoft learn any lessons from the Vista beta?”

After that beta ended Microsoft invited about a thousand or so beta testers to join “Windows early feedback”, a programme where testers could suggest features and upgrades for what later became Windows 7.  I was lucky enough to be invited onto this programme.

Now, let’s start by saying that I don’t think some people in Microsoft like me very much, I have to say I don’t much like some of them either but this comes from my wanting Windows to be the best product it can be.  I’ve rubbed some people, including some very senior people, up the wrong way by being one of the blogosphere’s harshest critics of the new taskbar and the way libraries work.  I have also heavily criticised some of the feedback given to technical testers during this beta through the connect website, but more on that in my review of the beta itself.

That said, I’m also fair and even handed and want to give credit where credit is due.  The Windows early feedback programme has long since disappeared from the Microsoft Connect site but I do remember what the top two suggestions, as voted for by beta testers, were.

1. Virtualisation
2. Family Pack Licence

And, especially if recent rumours about a three PC family licence are correct, it looks like they listened and they came through.

We all know that virtualisation has been built into Windows 7 in a big way with XP mode.  This, I’m sure is just a taster for full 32-bit virtualisation for Windows 8 (I predict that’ll be it’s name as 8 it’s a lucky number in the far east and China, two important markets for Microsoft) that’ll finally see the stripping out of all the legacy code.  It will also be interesting to see just how fast and reliable it will be, and how few patches will be required, after this happens.  Frankly I can’t wait.

I can’t remember what the other items were on the programme, if anybody does know, why not post them here.  But hat’s off to Microsoft, they do actually listen when it matters.

Did Microsoft listen to beta testers after Vista? was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Announcement: 50% discount on Windows 7 Pre-Orders for a limited amount of time.

A gentle reminder to readers who may still be running the Windows 7 Beta that it will start shutting down every 2 hours from today. To stop this you need to upgrade to Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC), which won’t suffer the same fate until March 1st, 2010 by which point you probably will have purchased the full version.

If you do try and install Windows 7 RC over a Windows 7 beta build, it won’t work.  However, if you want to install the Windows 7 RC candidate and not lose all your customisations then follow these instructions.

Windows 7 Beta Ends Today! How To Upgrade to Windows 7 RC was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Until recently I remember seeing a fair amount of Windows Vista advertising. Think the Mojave experiment. Now it seems Microsoft has scaled it back by a large amount. They are now just advertising “Microsoft” in general. Take the recent “Laptop Hunter” ads. The ads talk about the hardware in the computers, but fail to mention the OS at all. Is this a precursor to a media blitz that is up-coming? Or is Microsoft going to take a low key approach with Windows 7. Let’s take a look at some ideas for both campaigns.

The Media Blitz

Microsoft wants to sell this OS very badly. So they pound all the major networks with commercials, print ads for all the big publishers – online ads everywhere they can put them. Pretty much an inundation of Windows 7 advertising. All getting the word out that Windows 7 is not the dreaded Vista. It is better, stronger, and faster than any previous version of Windows. Should they make it a huge ad campaign? Or…

The Quite Approach

This is where Microsoft lets the OS speak for itself. No huge ad campaign of any kind. Only subtle hints that the new Windows is out. Let word of mouth and of course the blogs spread the news. Then they let the momentum build up. At which point, news has reached the “mainstream.” Friends of friends have tried it, like it, and recommend it. Then Windows 7 has caught on enough to merit select advertising.

What will Microsoft do? Probably a mix of the two. Right now they are in the middle of a “quite approach.” With the Internet buzzing with information about new builds and the soon to be released RTM. They have good exposure for people like you and me. People who have been using Windows 7 for the last six months or so. We know all about it. But to me it seems that nobody else does. Most people are like “What is Windows 7?”

Anyone who walks in to a Best Buy or any participating retail chainand purchases a new PC will, I believe, will be offered to upgrade when Windows 7 is released on Oct.22. So my question to you the readers and potential buyers of Windows 7 is. How should Microsoft advertise Windows 7?

What Should Windows 7′s Advertising Campaign Be? was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Earlier, I made a post in which I described the upcoming Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) and explained what all of the hype was about. Now, the Redmond company has released the 1.0 Beta, and anyone can download MSE directly from Microsoft. On Microsoft’s page for MSE, a link to Microsoft Connect is provided from which users can fill out a quick survey (seven questions) about security, and upon completion, users can download the Beta for Windows 7 (x86 and x64), Windows Vista (x86 and x64), or Windows XP (x86 only).

Microsoft provides a quick explanation on their official page:

You’re too busy to spend a lot of time worrying about protecting your PC. With Microsoft Security Essentials Beta, you get high-quality protection against viruses and spyware, including Trojans, worms and other malicious software. And best of all, there are no costs or annoying subscriptions to keep track of.

Security Essentials is easy to install and easy to use. Updates and upgrades are automatic, so there’s no need to worry about having the latest protection. It’s easy to tell if you’re protected – when the Security Essentials icon is green, your status is good. It’s as simple as that.

When you’re busy using your PC, you don’t want to be bothered by needless alerts. Security Essentials runs quietly in the background, only alerting you if there’s something you need to do. And it doesn’t use a lot of system resources, so it won’t get in the way of your work or fun.

Remember that you will need to meet the minimum requirements:

• For Windows XP, a PC with a CPU with clock speed of at least 500MHz and at least 256MB of RAM
• For Windows Vista and Windows 7, a PC with a CPU with clock speed of at least 1.0GHz and at least 1GB of RAM
• VGA (display): 800×600 or higher
• Storage: 140MB of available hard-disk space
• An Internet connection is required for installation and to download the latest virus and spyware definitions.
• Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher, or Mozilla Firefox 2.0 or higher.

A second build will be released to the public later this summer, which will be either a Beta Refresh or a Release Candidate, and then the final build in the fall (either before or around the release of Windows 7). However, interestingly enough, the Beta build (1.0.1407.00) is lower than that of the leaked build (1.0.2140.0), so users of the leak could be advised to keep their current version and those who do not have MSE already may wish to obtain the leaked copy.

Download

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Last week Microsoft sent emails to people who had downloaded the 7000 beta build of Windows 7 telling them that it would expire on the 1st June 2009.

Today they have sent further emails correcting this…

Special Beta Edition — Correction

Because you signed up to test the Windows 7 Beta, we recently sent you mail about the expiration dates for the Beta and Release Candidate. Unfortunately, we made a mistake.

We said the Beta would start shutting down every two hours on June 1, 2009. The correct date is July 1, 2009.

The rest of the dates in the mail were correct. Here’s a quick summary:

Version: Starts shutting down every two hours: Expires: Beta July 1, 2009 August 1, 2009 Release Candidate March 1, 2010 June 1, 2010

We apologize for the error and any confusion it may have caused.

Thanks again for helping us test Windows 7.

 Anyone using the release candidate can however, as stated above, continue to use it until the 1st June 2010.

Microsoft correct erroneous beta expiration date was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Microsoft is sending out emails to users who have downloaded the Windows 7 Beta from the official download site. The emails contain information about the expiration date of the Windows 7 Beta and links to downloads of the release candidate.

The expiration date of Windows 7 Beta is August 1, 2009 but problems will start to occur on June 1, 2009 when the PC that the beta is running on will shut down every two hours

Thanks again for your help in testing the Windows 7 Beta.

We’re sending this mail to remind you that Windows 7 Release candidate is available and to make sure you plan ahead for when the Beta expires on August 1, 2009. On June 1, 2009, the PC you’re using to test the Beta will begin shutting down every two hours. Windows will send you a notice a couple of weeks in advance, and that’d be the ideal time to rebuild your test PC with a non-expired version of Windows, such as the RC or Windows Vista. This will be a clean installation, so be ready to reinstall your programs and data. (Learn more about installing Windows.)

The remaining part of the email contains information about the Windows 7 release candidate including download links but also the that a clean install is desired. Users who would prefer to update from beta to release candidate directly might want to check out our Windows Beta To RC Upgrade Instructions.

So, if you haven’t already done so, we highly recommend that you download and install the RC from one of the following sites today:

Developers
IT Pros/Microsoft Partners
Tech Enthusiasts/Consumers

IMPORTANT: If you are running Windows 7 Beta you’ll need to back up your data (preferably on an external device) and then do a clean install of the Windows 7 Release Candidate. After installing Windows 7, you will need to reinstall applications and restore your files. If you need help with the installation process, please see the Installation Instructions.

If you have questions or need help installing the RC, you can get help with your Windows 7 questions at http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/category/w7itpro/

There’s another expiration date you need to keep in mind: Windows 7 RC will expire on June 1, 2010, and you’ll need to either upgrade to the final release of Windows 7 or a prior version of Windows before then. (We‘ll send you another reminder as this date approaches.)

Thanks again for your interest in Windows 7 and for your help in finishing this product!

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Thousands of users are already testing the release candidate of Windows 7. Many make use of virtualization techniques or dual / triple boot systems to be able to test the release candidate without affecting their main operating system. Some on the other hand have been bold enough to install Windows 7 RC as their main operating system. A big question for those users is if it will be possible to upgrade the release candidate build of Windows 7 to a final build without losing data in the process.

The only official indicator that upgrading from Windows 7 release candidate to Windows 7 final will be possible can be found in the Engineering Windows 7 blog post about upgrading from beta to release candidate. You might remember the post as it gives instructions on how to override the upgrade protection. One of the last sentences of that article is the following:

These same steps will be required as we transition from the RC milestone to the RTM milestone.

The steps that were outlined for upgrading the Windows 7 beta release to release candidate were the following:

• Download the ISO as you did previously and burn the ISO to a DVD.
• Copy the whole image to a storage location you wish to run the upgrade from (a bootable flash drive or a directory on any partition on the machine running the pre-release build).
• Browse to the sources directory.
• Open the file cversion.ini in a text editor like Notepad.
• Modify the MinClient build number to a value lower than the down-level build. For example, change 7100 to 7000 (pictured below).
• Save the file in place with the same name.
• Run setup like you would normally from this modified copy of the image and the version check will be bypassed.

It is furthermore very likely that the rtm build of Windows 7 will be distributed with the build number 7200. An upgrade from release candidate to rtm build would therefor require the modification of the MinClient build number from 7200 to 7100 or lower. This would in theory mean that it could also be possible to upgrade Windows 7 Beta to Windows 7 RM using the same procedure.

Upgrading From Windows 7 RC To Final was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Microsoft has published the whitepaper “Power Management Improvements in Windows 7″ yesterday. It is made up of 14 pages that outlines some of the power management improvements that Microsoft has implemented in Windows 7 Beta.

The Windows 7 operating system provides several opportunities to decrease power consumption across the enterprise. The power management technologies in Windows 7 provide platform and processor efficiencies that reduce power consumption and can help lower energy costs. Windows 7 can also extend battery life for specific scenarios. Additionally, it provides diagnostic tools that enable OEM, IHVs, ISVs and IT pros to better manage and troubleshoot power management issues on computers and to extend the battery life for portable computers.

This white paper describes power management enhancements in Windows 7, including improvements that reduce power consumption, enhance user experiences, and enable greater enterprise power management.

The list of improvements contains the following topics:

• Reduced Power Consumption
• Idle Resource Utilization
• Trigger Start Services
• Enhanced Processor Power Management
• Timer Coalescing
• Device Power Management
• Adaptive Display Brightness
• Low-Power Audio
• Bluetooth Power Improvements
• Networking Power Improvements
• Enhanced User Experiences
• Greater Enterprise Power Management
• Power Efficiency Diagnostics
• Group Policy
• Windows Management Instrumentation
• Power Policy

Interesting from a end user standpoint is the rather large paragraph outlining the enhanced user experiences:

Optimizations to key user scenarios. By focusing on the core infrastructure (as described earlier), Windows 7 enables power savings opportunities across a broad range of scenarios, including office productivity. In addition to these core infrastructure investments, Windows 7 provides power savings opportunities across specific end-user scenarios. For example, Microsoft has optimized the extended battery life during playback of standard definition content with Windows Media Player.

DVD playback is an example of a key scenario that highlights the investments made in energy efficiency in Windows 7. These optimizations span several areas, which include the following:

• Processor power management improvements that allow the processor to stay in lower performance states without impacting playback performance.
• Architectural changes that improve the Desktop Window Manager (DWM) graphics processing unit (GPU) utilization.
• Playback pipeline scaling that allows lower power operation without significantly impacting playback quality.
• Audio stack and operating system improvements that enable high-fidelity playback without requiring increased timer resolution.
• Smart data caching mechanisms that allow aggressive optical disk drive spin down.

In addition to the focused optimizations for DVD and audio playback, Windows 7 offers additional performance optimizations across several scenarios including search, Internet browsing, and casual games. These optimizations reduce power consumption and help extend battery life.

The Windows 7 Power Management whitepaper can directly be downloaded from Microsoft’s Environment homepage. (via Technet)

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Microsoft has made it clear in the beginning that users who would install the beta release of Windows 7 would not be able to update to the Windows 7 release candidate. In other words: They had to perform a clean install of the Windows 7 Release Candidate. While the majority of users probably does not have a problem with that as the beta version of Windows 7 usually made its way on spare or test systems some users might have installed it on their main computer systems.

The official way of updating Windows 7 Beta to Windows 7 RC is the following:

• Starting with a data backup. This includes documents, multimedia files and any other data or files that got created by the user and need to be transferred to the new system. We would suggest to either copy the whole Windows 7 partition to a spare drive or be very careful when creating the backup.
• Using Windows 7 Easy Transfer to backup Windows 7 settings. Windows 7 Easy Transfer is part of Windows 7.
• Formatting the partition Windows 7 Beta was on.
• Installing Windows 7 release candidate
• Using Windows 7 Easy Transfer to restore the settings of Windows 7 Beta
• Reinstalling any third party applications that are needed on the computer system
• Restoring data from the previously created backup to the computer system

That’s a long process which can take hours or more depending on the data and third party applications that need to be reinstalled. The release candidate will block the direct update from Windows 7 Beta to it. Users who want to give it a try can follow Microsoft’s “emergency” tips for performing a direct update from beta to rc (read: Windows 7 Beta To RC Upgrade Instructions). A data backup is highly recommended before starting that process.

If you run a pre-RC build of Windows 7: How will you update to the Windows 7 Release Candidate? Let us know in the comments.

Windows 7 Update: From Beta To RC The Microsoft Way was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Announcement: 50% discount on Windows 7 Pre-Orders for a limited amount of time.

The Microsoft Engineering team has outlined how Windows 7 Beta users can upgrade their version of Windows 7 to the soon to be released Release Candidate of Windows 7. The disappointing news is that Microsoft suggests to do a clean install instead as the development changes introduced after the release of the beta of Windows 7 were not always compatible with the upgrades made thereafter.

A clean install on the other hand would mean that all the changes and customizations made to the operating system by the user would be lost. This is a nuisance although everyone knew beforehand that this could happen eventually. Microsoft is suggesting to do a clean install or upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7.

The RC, however, is about getting breadth coverage to validate the product in real-world scenarios. As a result, we want to encourage you to revert to a Vista image and upgrade or to do a clean install, rather than upgrade the existing Beta.

The Windows 7 release candidate setup will quit automatically if it recognizes a pre-RC build on the computer system. Microsoft did however publish a workaround for that for users who really need to do it:

1. Download the ISO as you did previously and burn the ISO to a DVD.
2. Copy the whole image to a storage location you wish to run the upgrade from (a bootable flash drive or a directory on any partition on the machine running the pre-release build).
3. Browse to the sources directory.
4. Open the file cversion.ini in a text editor like Notepad.
5. Modify the MinClient build number to a value lower than the down-level build. For example, change 7100 to 7000 (pictured below).
6. Save the file in place with the same name.
7. Run setup like you would normally from this modified copy of the image and the version check will be bypassed.

There you got it. It is still possible to upgrade a pre-release candidate release to the RC of Windows 7. Microsoft did add some words of caution to the article which are quoted below:

These instructions will be brief. Since everyone reading is a well-versed and experienced beta tester you know ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR MACHINE before running any OS installation and NEVER TEST AN OS ON YOUR ONLY COPY OF ANY DATA. Testing a pre-release product means just that—it is testing and it is pre-release. Even though this is a Release Candidate, we are still testing the product. We have very high confidence but even if an error happens once in 1,000,000 we want to make sure everyone is taking the precautions normal for a pre-release product.

One other related caution is INSTALL ONLY OFFICIALLY RELEASED BUILDS FROM MICROSOFT. It will always be tempting to get the build with the “mod” already done but you really never know what else has been done to the build. There’s a thrill in getting the latest, we know, but that also comes with risks that can’t even be quantified. For the RC we will work to release a hash or some other way to validate the build, but the best way is to always download directly from Microsoft.

It basically says to avoid unofficial releases of Windows 7 and to make sure that data has been backed up before starting the installation of beta and release candidate builds.

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Windows 7 Media Player and Windows Media Center will block the usage of third party video codecs. That news spread like wildfire on the Internet after the discovery that the latest semi-public builds of Windows 7 were indeed restricting codec usage in those two programs.

Rafael got an official response from Microsoft regarding that rumor which basically states that Microsoft will not limit third party codec use in Windows 7.

As we move toward the release of Windows 7, we have worked to add more codecs and file types to allow for a better user experience. We also allow Microsoft experiences to use codecs and other format technologies from third-party companies, just as we always have. Third party applications can use the Microsoft codecs or their own. Microsoft does not restrict the use of third-party codecs.

Blocking third party codec usage in the pre-release candidate builds of Windows 7 might be a way to test the newly added codecs in the operating system.

Still it is good to know that the blocking will not be carried over into the final release of Windows 7.

No Third Party Codec Restrictions In Windows 7 Final was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Russian news magazine The Vista reported about the upcoming Mini-Beta of Windows 7 which describes the testing phase of localized editions of Windows 7 that have not been released in the official builds yet. While the Russian magazine mentions only the Russian version of Windows 7 it is very likely that it applies to all other localized Windows 7 editions.

The begin of the Mini-Beta will also mark the end of the localization period in the Windows 7 development with testers being asked to discover translation bugs or errors and submit suggestions for better wordings. The testers will receive their copy of Windows 7 at the Microsoft Connect portal which will also be place to submit reports. The most successful and active testers are said to receive prices including localized editions of Windows 7 Ultimate.

The test basis is the Windows 7 Release Candidate which obviously means that Microsoft still aims at a late April release of Windows 7 for selected testers and a public release in May.

Beta For Localized Windows 7 Editions To Start was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

We covered a news story in February about 36 changes between Windows 7 Beta and the Windows 7 Release Candidate (read up on it Windows 7 RC Changes). Microsoft has posted another batch of changes that have been made on their Engineering Windows blog.

The list contains 27 additional changes between Windows 7 Beta and Windows 7 Release Candidate that are worth exploring. The changes are divided into categories like Desktop Experience, Windows Explorer and Libraries or Device Stage and contain detailed explanations.

Among the requested features by the Windows 7 Beta test group are multi-touch support for Windows Explorer, trimming sound schemes to decrease Windows startup and shutdown time, a size reduction of the Windows Page File, improved driver support and support for digital cameras using Firewire.

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There are definitely a lot of Windows 7 builds that get leaked in the last weeks. The latest which appeared on popular Bittorrent websites just a few hours ago is Windows 7 Build 7057 32-bit which has been created by Microsoft just six days ago.

The latest leaked build of Windows 7 comes with several interesting changes that are worth mentioned. The expiry date for build 7057 has been set to March 2, 2010 which is almost a year from now and nearly seven months after the officially released beta version expires. This could hint at a release of Windows 7 in early 2010 as we predicted a few days ago.

Windows 7 Build 7057 Screenshots

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To see all Windows 7 Screenshots click here

A Neowin user posted the following information on the website:

Functionality Changes:

1. First of all, UAC (User Account Control) issue has been fixed.
2. Now, if you change the size of the icons Superbar changes and the size of the Superbar.
3. Now, if you change the settings UAC opens a separate window, not the page of Control Panel.
4. The system does become a smaller scale as compared to 7048, and much more.

Visual changes:

1. Active windows now blink 7 times as mentioned.
2. Changed icons Editor personal character and program of recovery disc.
3. The watermark now says Evaluations copy instead of for testing purposes only.
4. Several new wallpapers.
5. Many new icons added to user.
6. All references to sending feedback have disappeared
7. New logon/shutdown background

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The guessing game is on again. Microsoft is tight lipped about the Windows 7 release schedule which is the main reason why so many different Windows 7 release dates are floating around on the Internet. Depending on the website that you visit you find release dates for Windows 7 that range from the second quarter of 2009 to the fourth quarter of 2010. That’s more than 18 months of difference.

There are indications that the most extreme release date suggestions will not become true. We know that the Windows 7 Release Candidate will most likely be released in April 2009 which makes it highly unlikely that Windows 7 will be released in the second or third quarter of 2009. The most likely release dates for Windows 7 are therefor located in the fourth quarter of 2009 or the first quarter of 2010.

According to Rachel Linnemann who is responsible for Windows business clients in Germany Windows 7 will not be released in 2009 but in the first quarter of 2010. While she explicitly mentions the Germany version of Windows 7 it is likely that this is also true for the other first tier languages.

According to Microsoft’s language release schedule for Windows 7 the German and English version of Windows 7 will be released at the same time together with several other languages.

Beta version users who might have fears that their beta versions run out will have the opportunity to upgrade to the Windows 7 Release Candidate which – most likely – will not expire before the official release of the final version of Windows 7. It is however not sure at this point if the release candidate of Windows 7 will be made available publicly or only to the beta testers.

No Windows 7 In 2009? was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

First reports are in that another Windows 7 build has been leaked to the Internet. After magazines like Winfuture posting screenshots of Windows 7 build 7048 yesterday first reports have emerged that this build is available on various Bittorrent sites on the Internet. The complete build string of the release is 7048.0.winmain.090219-1845 indicating that it was compiled on February 19, 2009 at 18:45. It is surprising that this build got leaked as it only got distributed to internal testers and several Microsoft partners who participate in the Technology Adopters Program.

Windows 7 build 7048 is supposed to be distributed to beta testers on the Connect portal later this month according to the article at Winfuture.

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Ed Bott has an interesting article up called Five things every Windows beta tester should know. In hit he defends – somewhat – the decisions made by the Windows 7 development team to run the beta process as they are. It is basically a direct response to community criticism that accused Microsoft of not listening enough to Windows 7 beta testers. It basically boils down to the influence that the beta testers – at least the more prominent ones – actually have and want. There is a discrepancy between those two which is the source of all the criticism that Microsoft is currently facing.

Is it problematic if Microsoft is handing out a more or less feature complete version of Windows 7 to the beta testers? Was not it always the case that beta testers were mainly there for finding bugs and problems in the software rather than suggesting new features? While it surely cannot hurt to provide Microsoft with insight about features or changes to existing applications it should probably not be priority number one. And Microsoft did change some of the behavior in the operating system thanks to criticism and suggestions by beta testers, think of the UAC behavior in Windows 7 for one.

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According to Ray Chen, president of Taipei-based Compal Electronics Inc., a release of the next Microsoft operating system Windows 7 is imminent. The release is currently aiming for a September or early October release. This should not be confused with the public availability of the operating system as manufacturers like Compal receive the operating systems week prior to their public release. This is interesting as Microsoft is still sticking with a late 2009 early 2010 release date for Windows 7.

via Bloomberg

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Microsoft has released an update for Windows 7 Beta that is supposed to resolve issues with non-compatible applications. The download page at the Microsoft website links to a Knowledge Base article that is currently not available which means it is currently not clear which issues have been resolved by the update. The Windows 7 update has a size of only 1.6 Megabytes and it might require a restart of the computer after installation.

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We had a poll running for the last days that was asking visitors to rate the beta of Windows 7 on a scale of 1 to 6 with 1 being the best possible rating and 6 the worst. More than 3000 visitors rated the Windows 7 Beta. More than 44% of all visitors rated the Windows 7 Beta with the highest rating possible followed by another 18% which rated it a 2.

About 70% of all visitors gave the Windows 7 beta a rating between 1-3 while 30% rated it between 4-6. That’s a very good result for a beta version of an operating system.

The new poll is asking you to select the edition of Windows 7 that you will most likely purchase when the operating system comes out. This can be a purchase of a standalone edition of Windows 7 or as part of a hardware purchase. Just let us know which edition you would prefer to buy at the moment.

Windows 7 Beta Gets Good Ratings. New Poll Started was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

The general availability of the Windows 7 Beta is going to end today for the general public. This does not affect MSDN and Technet subscribers but everyone else who is trying to download the beta of Windows 7.

To be precise the opportunity to download the Windows 7 beta ends today on February 10th at 12am Pacific Time. Users who start the download prior to that time will have time until February 12th 9am Pacific Time to finish the download. If you have not finished the download of Windows 7 Beta by that time you won’t be able to finish it.

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According to the My Digital Life blog a new version of Windows 7 with the build number 7022 has been leaked to the Internet. The leak is already available on various P2P networks from where it can be downloaded. The build tag of the leaked release is 7022.winmain.090115-1850 which will be displayed on the desktop after installation. The download has a size of 2.47 Gigabytes. The build was compiled on January 15, almost a month ago.

No news yet on the changes in this new build other than that a release candidate version of Microsoft Internet Explorer is included in Windows 7 build 7022.

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To put it short: Steven Sinofsky confirmed that there will be no Windows 7 Beta 2 which means that the next official release will be the Windows 7 Release Candidate. Rumors that have been came to light yesterday suggest a release in early April for the Windows 7 Release Candidate.

The RTM release of Windows 7 is expected in the third quarter of 2009, most suggesting a release in early October which would indicate a public availability in the fourth quarter of 2009.

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Microsoft has made the announcement last week that they will extend the beta signup period for the Windows 7 Beta until February 10. This is actually the second extension of the beta signup program. Microsoft wanted to initially hand out the Windows 7 Beta to a limited number of downloaders but quickly changed their stance after experiencing troubles during the signup phase.

Plans were to end the public beta phase on January 24 which got then extended again last week. Users who start the beta download until February 10 will have time until February 12 to download the Windows 7 Beta from the Microsoft servers.

The product keys that are needed to run the beta version of Windows 7 after the initial 30 day activation period will even be available after that day since MSDN and Technet subscribers will still be able to download and install the beta version.

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Microsoft Connect contains several important Windows 7 downloads including the download of Windows 7 Ultimate Beta but also that of Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Server Beta and several others. Here is a list of what downloads you find on that website:

• Windows 7 Beta Critical WMP and WMC Critical Update – KB961367
• Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 Beta Preliminary Release Notes
• Windows 7 Beta (7000-0-081212-1400) SDK and Symbols
• Windows 7 Beta (7000-0-081212-1400) WDK
• Windows 7 Beta (7000-0-081212-1400) WLK
• Windows 7 Beta (7000-0-081212-1400) Language Interface Packs
• Windows 7 Beta (7000-0-081212-1400) Checked Builds Client and Server
• Windows 7 Beta (7000-0-081212-1400) Ultimate
• Windows 7 Beta (7000-0-081212-1400) Server
• Windows 7 Beta (7000-0-081212-1400) Home Premium
• MCDiag (x64 and x86)

all of these packages can be downloaded directly from Microsoft Connect following this instructions:

Visit the Microsoft Connect website and enter the following invitation code into the form field on the right: WIN7-3HQW-RF74

You are asked to login and to register but will eventually come to a site that will display those downloads and options to get additional keys if necessary.

via Neowin

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Some users in our Windows 7 Forum have experienced crashes when trying to install or update software in Windows 7 Beta. This happened for example when trying to install Microsoft Office, Windows Update or any other installer that was using Microsoft’s MSI installer to install or update software. Microsoft has released an official workaround for the problem which is outlined below:

“Microsoft deployed a configuration change which exposed this (installer) problem. New machines installing Windows 7 Beta will not experience this problem. An issue related to the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP also known as SQM) client in the Windows 7 Beta is causing crashes of Explorer, MSI-based installers and other applications. In order to resolve the issue, impacted customers need to run the following script from an elevated command prompt. This script will stop crashes related to CEIP and removes those changes (registry keys) to prevent further CEIP related crashes.

“Detailed instructions:
1. Select and copy the following to your clipboard:
reg delete HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftSQMClientWindowsDisabledSessions /va /f
2. Click on “Start”, then “All Programs”, then “Accessories”
3. Right click on “Command Prompt”, then click on “Run as administrator”
4. In the UAC prompt, verify that the program’s name is “Windows Command Processor” and then click “Yes”
5. Right click on the “Administrator: Command Prompt” window’s black area, then select “Paste”
6. Press “Enter”, you should see “The operation completed successfully”.
If you see “ERROR: Access is denied”, please make sure you followed Step 3.
7. Close the “Administrator: Command Prompt window”

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Riso posted new information about the release of Display Language Interface Packs for the Windows 7 Beta on our Windows 7 Forum. Microsoft has released several language interface packs for the public beta version of Windows 7 at their Microsoft Connect website according to his information. The Language Interface Packs that have been released are not yet specified as Multilanguage User Interface (MUI) or Language Interface Packs (LIP).

Language Interface Packs for 32-bit (x86) Windows 7 Beta

US English: x86fre_client_en-us-GB1CLP_EN_DVD.iso (0×7E8005D4)
Simplified Chinese: x86fre_client_zh-cn-GB1CLP_CN_DVD.iso (0xC8A91CD0)
Traditional Chinese: x86fre_client_zh-tw-GB1CLP_TW_DVD.iso (0×79D97687)
Korean: x86fre_client_ko-kr-GB1CLP_KO_DVD.iso (0xBBCABDAE)
Arabic: x86fre_client_ar-sa-GB1CLP_AR_DVD.iso (0xA95E7173)
German: x86fre_client_de-de-GB1CLP_DE_DVD.iso (0xB8B06076)
Japanese: x86fre_client_ja-jp-GB1CLP_JA_DVD.iso (0×6D8F6779)
Hindi: x86fre_client_LIP_hi-in-GB1CLIP_HI_DVD.iso (0×53974B35)

Language Interface Packs for 64-bit (x64) Windows 7 Beta

US English: amd64fre_client_en-us-GB1CxLP_EN_DVD.iso (0×52E672BD)
Simplified Chinese: amd64fre_client_zh-cn-GB1CxLP_CN_DVD.iso (0×99B92D93)
Traditional Chinese: amd64fre_client_zh-tw-GB1CxLP_TW_DVD.iso (0×0A580CAE)
Korean: amd64fre_client_ko-kr-GB1CxLP_KO_DVD.iso (0×2327DCFE)
Arabic: amd64fre_client_ar-sa-GB1CxLP_AR_DVD.iso (0×67ED3E9F)
German: amd64fre_client_de-de-GB1CxLP_DE_DVD.iso (0×29744B81)
Japanese: amd64fre_client_ja-jp-GB1CxLP_JA_DVD.iso (0×78B0F90B)

Local Language Interface Packs for Windows 7 Beta

The ISO, LIP display language packs for Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Spain, France, UK, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Turkey, Taiwan, US, and South Africa.
32-bit: client_localpacks-GB1LCLPCKCFRE_DVD.iso (0xFCB14E84)
64-bit: client_localpacks-GB1LCLPCKCXFRE_DVD.iso (0×21195B94)

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Many users are reporting about problems they have with the downloads of the iso images of Windows 7 Beta. Some give up and use P2P networks to download the beta of Windows 7 as this seems to be the more reliable – but legally questionable – way of downloading the operating system.

The direct download links to the iso images at Microsoft tend to timeout every now and then which means that they are not the most reliable way of downloading the iso images.

More reliable than that is to open the direct links to the official Windows 7 Downloader in Internet Explorer.

Windows 7 32-bit Download Link

Windows 7 64-bit Download Link

Just copy the two links into Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer will display a dialog to install a new software component. Do that and the download of Windows 7 should begin immediately.

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Microsoft has decided to lift the 2.5 million user limit they initially planned as a response to the release chaos on January 9. The announcement was posted yesterday on the The Windows Blog:

I know many of you have had issues with the Windows 7 Beta site over the last 24 hours. As you may have noticed the download site has been up and running smoothly since this morning. That said, we apologize for the inconvenience that it caused some of you.

Due to an enormous surge in demand, the download experience was not ideal so we listened and took the necessary steps to ensure a good experience. We have clearly heard that many of you want to check out the Windows 7 Beta and, as a result, we have decided remove the initial 2.5 million limit on the public beta for the next two weeks (thru January 24th). During that time you will have access to the beta even if the download number exceeds the 2.5 million unit limit.

Thank you for your enthusiasm, interest and willingness to beta test. It has been great to see the positive early reviews and feedback. As you know, this is a beta product. We are working hard to get Windows 7 ready and right. Your input is a critical part of that process. Thank you!

This means that everyone will be able to download the Windows 7 Beta and receive a product key in the process if he does so before January 24.

Interested users can head over to the download page where they can apply for a key and download the Windows 7 Beta.

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The official sites are not displaying links to download the Windows 7 Beta anymore. They tell the users that the beta release has been postponed because of the high demand. The interesting thing though is that the servers that are distributing the keys are still online and that keys are still handed out. The problem is that those servers are not used to the amount of traffic that they are currently receiving and that an error message will be shown most of the time before a valid Windows 7 Beta product key will be displayed. Here is what you need to do:

Download and Install the Firefox add-on Check For Change. The add-on can be used to refresh a website in a specified interval. It will stop that if the selected display on the website changes.

Sign In on the Microsoft Technet Website. If you do not sign in you will be redirected if you try to open one of the following two urls: (copy and paste the links, do not click on them)

32-bit: https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/scripts/gcs.aspx?Product=tn-win7-32-ww&LCID=1033

64-bit: https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/scripts/gcs.aspx?Product=tn-win7-64-ww&LCID=1033

You will most likely see Error: The site is currently experiencing technical difficulties, please check back in the next business day.

Select the text, right-click and chose Check4Change, Check every 15 seconds.

The Firefox add-on willl automatically refresh the website every 15 seconds. It will stop doing so once the display on the website changes. You could do this manually but some users mentioned that they refreshed the website for hours before receiving a product key.

Please note that the product keys can be used on either version of Windows 7. If you got a 64-bit key you can use it to activate a 32-bit version and vice verse.

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Yesterday was a very busy day for Microsoft. The first official download links for Windows 7 Beta releases started to appear on the Chinese Technet website. Some users, like Riso from the Windows 7 forum, managed to get their holds on the beta. They did receive the beta key and the ISO download. Others who got there minutes afterwards noticed that the site was serving pages slowly and that errors started to occur regularly. Many were able to fill out the form on the first page but got an error message when the download link and product key of Windows 7 were supposed to appear.

Other Microsoft websites began to include the link to the beta download of Windows 7 on their websites but it soon became obvious that all Microsoft servers were crumbling under the heavy load. Later that day the direct download links became known and users started to download the official releases but they still did not receive the keys.

Some users managed to grab a Windows 7 Beta key later that day but most did not succeed but were greeted with the following error message:

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.

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While the official English Windows 7 site is still not showing signs of the Windows 7 Beta the Chinese (English translation)Microsoft Technet website is already offering Windows 7 Beta as a 32-bit and 64-bit download for all beta languages. Users need a Windows Live login before they can download the beta version and the site seems to have some troubles at the moment spilling out errors when trying to download it. Some users are already downloading the official beta release from the Technet site.

Update:

The download link on the English page is up.

Update 2:

Due to very heavy traffic we’re seeing as a result of interest in the Windows 7 Beta, we are adding some additional infrastructure support to the Microsoft.com properties before we post the public beta. We want to ensure customers have the best possible experience when downloading the beta, and I’ll be posting here again soon once the beta goes live. Stay tuned! We are excited that you are excited!

Update 3:

Direct Download link has been posted. Click on the following download links to download the 32-bit or 64-bit English ISO directly. You still need to get a beta product key though.

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It is finally official. After a period of heavy speculations when the Windows 7 Beta would be released to the public the final date of the Windows 7 beta release has been published by the Windows 7 Dev Team. Windows 7 Beta will be released publicly on January 9 at the official Microsoft Windows 7 website. MSDN subscriber and Technet subscribers can download the beta of Windows 7 already.

It has to be noted that the Windows 7 Beta will be made available for a limited time to 2.5 million downloaders only. If you want it you have to be fast to grab your copy before downloads close again.

The Windows 7 beta will be supplied as a 32-bit or 64-bit ISO image of Windows 7 Ultimate which has to be burned to DVD before it can be installed. It can also be used to run the system on a virtual machine. Windows Vista SP1 or higher users can upgrade their operating system to Windows 7 Beta although that is only recommended for test environments. The Beta will expire on August 1st, 2009.

And for anyone wondering if the Beta is build 7000 or a later build: According to forum member Joe the build of the Windows 7 Beta is 7000. You can check out the latest news about the release and additional information at our Windows 7 Forum.

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The first 64-bit version of Windows 7 has been apparently leaked as signs of it begin to appear on various torrent websites. The full file name is said to be 7000.0.081212-1400_client_en-us_Ultimate-GB1CULXFRE_EN_DVD.ISO with a file size of 3.15 Gigabytes.

The CES 2009 keynote by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is just around the corner and it does not really make much sense to download the leaked release as the official public beta version will also be released in the coming days.

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The Technet China website was update today. It is the first site that is showing information about the Windows 7 Beta in the Technet Evaluation Center. Windows 7 is mentioned twice on the page. The first is a short paragraph about the Windows 7 Beta. A link will be added at a later time that will lead to download links.

The translated paragraph has the following meaning:

Windows 7 Beta
Windows 7 to explore ways to help IT organizations to better manage and protect client infrastructure, and learn more about IT professionals can increase productivity of important new features. Exploration in the organization to test, as well as the deployment of Windows 7 necessary tools and resources.

Windows 7 is also listed under Operating Systems as a Beta.

More information can be as usually found in our Windows 7 Forum by following the direct link to the Riso’s post on the subject..

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The CES 2009 conference is less than a week away and the world is looking forward to Steve Ballmer’s keynote which is expected to reveal new information about Microsoft’s upcoming operating system Windows 7. Many news sites assume that Steve Ballmer will announce the public release of the Windows 7 Beta in his keynote. While that is not totally clear yet it is generally assumed that the Windows 7 Beta will be released in the beginning of January.

Long posted information about the live streams of the keynote on his Windows 7 blog. It will begin on Wednesday January 7 at 6.30pm PST and three live streams can be accessed to view the keynote from anywhere on the globe:

100K CEO 2009 Live Stream
300K CEO 2009 Live Stream
750K CEO 2009 Live Stream

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The Windows 7 News team wishes all of its visitors a wonderful New Years Eve and a successful productive 2009. The new year will be exciting as we will see the first official public beta release of Windows 7 and most likely the final release of the operating system. The new year will start with the release of the Windows 7 which can be downloaded and tested by all users. That’s actually the first public release of Windows 7 and it will be interesting to see how the general public will accept the new operating system.

Have a great day and see you in 2009!

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The usual suspects have gotten their hands on the beta release of Windows 7 and are posting all kinds of news related to it. Today’s news roundup starts with Ed Bott’s analysis of the Windows 7 EULA. The main points that he discovered in the EULA are that users can install the Windows 7 Beta on as many computer systems as they like, that they should not use it in a production environment, that it will expire on August 1, 2009, that some privacy related features are turned on by default whereas they will be turned off in the retail version and that it is not allowed to benchmark the system. Not a lot of new information in here although the summer expiration date lead to new assumptions about the final release date of Windows 7.

Paul Thurott posted his beta news and observations about Windows 7 which contains a detailed look at the taskbar display settings, start menu and tray popup inconsistencies and some stability issues.

Next in line and last in this news roundup is Zack Whittaker with minor criticisms about Windows 7. He rants about the search in Windows 7 and application incompatibilities.

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German computer magazine WinFuture published a few Windows 7 Beta screenshots on their website which show no apparent changes when compared to the previous (leaked) builds like build Windows 7 build 6956 which was the build used by Microsoft at the WinHEC 2009 conference in Beijing.

It is very likely that Microsoft did concentrate on stability and driver support in the beta release to avoid bad news about incompatible drivers and system crashes. They also got their hands on a localized German edition of the Windows 7 beta and noted that Microsoft has not finished localizing the editions yet.

It is very likely that you will not notice many difference to the WinHEC build either when the Windows 7 beta will be officially released by Microsoft. Is the lack of “new” features bothering you? Let us know.

Windows 7 Beta News – 12/23/08 was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.