Windows 7 beta 1 makes early debut

Steven Musil | Dec 29, 2008

The first beta of Microsoft's next operating system has apparently been spotted in the wild.

The first beta of Windows 7, which is expected to hit retailer shelves in time for the 2009 holiday shopping season, has reportedly popped up on torrent trackers as an ISO file. ZDNet's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes also reports having a copy and has posted his first impressions of the beta.

Overall, Kingsley-Hughes wrote that he likes Windows 7, calling it "solid and fast". But he does take issue with a few new features:

The new revamped taskbar is visually very interesting (and certainly a lot easier to use at higher screen resolutions that the Vista or XP taskbar), but it tries to do too much and as such comes across as kludgey and counter-intuitive. One failure is that it's hard to tell the difference between apps that are running and shortcuts that have been pinned to the taskbar.

Microsoft demoed the forthcoming operating system at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles last month, but apparently the differences between Windows 7 and Vista were so subtle that they can go unnoticed. Attendees to PDC 2008 received pre-beta copies of Windows 7 on DVD, as well as a 160GB Western Digital portable hard drive packed with code.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is expected to talk up Windows 7 from a consumer perspective during his keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics next week. Microsoft is expected to officially distribute the first beta to beta testers in early January.

Via CNET News

Filed under: PC & Peripherals
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mook73

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mook73 says...
i don't mind being a beta tester if i have a chance. was kind of pissed with vista. seriously, they gotta shed some weight and lighten on its footprint. so much talk about the how great the Seven will be. Let's hope it will disappoint little.

Dec 30, 2008 14:02

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edghami

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edghami says...
Im a windows user at home, but in the office we use mac, all i can say is OS X is still the best OS ever. Its got built in dictionary/thesaurus, media player, editors etc. Windows 7? how many versions are they going to release, Win7 home? starter kit? ultimate? WTF!....OS X only has one complete version hassle free. Windows should do something about this different versions thing.

Jan 05, 2009 09:38

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