Windows 7 beta available on MSDN and Technet, public release “soon”
During Microsoft’s CES keynote the company announced that the Windows 7 beta would be available to MSDN and Technet subscribers. Surely enough of it is there for those users to download. Windows 7 beta should be available to the general public very soon.
In fact on Wednesday night the Windows 7 beta became available and Microsoft said the public release would follow two days later. As of this writing, that means this Friday night the general public should be able to download Windows 7 beta.
The company said initial downloads would be limited to 2.5 million copies. What is not clear is if it was referring to Technet, MSDN, general public downloads or some combination of the three.
We’ll all find out soon enough when the public beta is released Friday night. There is a good chance the company was referring to the public beta downloads and if that is the case then you better hop on as soon as it goes up. Expect the servers to get crowded and the download slots to go fast.
Of course after this there will also be many more torrents available for Windows 7 but as a previous article points out that may not be the best way to go. This won’t be the only public beta download program for Windows 7 but it could well be the only beta before the final version is released possibly as early as this summer.
“Summer” could range anywhere between June and August. An unconfirmed but very plausible announcement saying that any computer purchased with Vista will be eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 7 starting in July. It can only be reasoned that the release for Windows 7 will come shortly before or after that date.
Before is possible because computers with Vista on them will need to be cleared out of stock and after is more likely because Microsoft will want to sell Windows and consumers will be aware of Windows 7. Therefore a free upgrade program allows people to buy Vista PC and still get Windows 7.
OEMs will be allowed to specify a shorter range of dates than the general upgrade program will last.
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