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Windows 7 beta downloads halted temporarily

9 January 2009 21:35 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 11 comments

Microsoft began offering downloads of a Windows 7 Beta early on Friday as had been promised by CEO Steve Ballmer in his pre-show keynote. However, it didn't take long for demand to overwhelm Microsoft's servers, forcing the company to halt the Beta downloads until more servers are added to deal with overwhelming traffic. "We are adding servers as fast as we can add them," a Microsoft spokesman said at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The Redmond-based software giant says Windows 7 will incorporate touch-screen technology and make the operating system much easier to personalize. The download is only available to the first 2.5 million people who download it - at least from Microsoft that is - a limit which probably caused the immediate rush.

The beta is available in English, German, Japanese, Hindi and Arabic (Hindi version is only available 32-bit). It requires at least a 1 GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB hard disk space, a DirectX 9-capable video card with 128MB memory and an Internet connection.

UPDATE: Download seems to be working fine again at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads..

Permalink to this article

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Windows 7 to come in 5 varieties (3 February 2009)

Windows 7 beta out in the wild (29 December 2008)

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Morreale (Member) 10 January 2009 0:45
Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta? Is the beta released today still build 7000 or is it newer? [ + quote]
Blackjax (Member) 10 January 2009 0:47
Actually from what I read on another site I think they are only issuing 2.5 million product keys, yes an old favorite is still there product activation. Anyone can download it and use it for 30 days or use the old vista trick to extend it out to 120 days. Either way the "pirates" out there will figure out soon enough how to "fix" that problem. Go here for more on server info edited for answer and spelling. [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 10 January 2009 0:50
Pop_Smith (Senior Member) 10 January 2009 4:57
@Morreale, it is still build 7000, I got it directly from Microsoft this morning and am using it to post this. While some people say it is just "Windows Vista SP2" it looks that way but isn't. From what I can tell they have the "idea" of Vista there but they went and did major code optimizations. Basically, it looks to be what Microsoft hoped Vista to be. They also got drivers to work out the gate, I found drivers for every piece of equipment on my laptop without any fuss or having to resort to "hacks" etc. so things have been pleasant so far. Yes, it still has "lovely" activation but it's good for up to 120 days without a key and there are no annoying "activate now" popups. Peace [ + quote]
jutsu (Junior Member) 10 January 2009 7:57
i have tried 7 too. its very fast.almost as fast as my XP SP3. and for beta 1, its very stable. the driver support also awesome. all detected and installed by windows. the only thing not work is ancient tv tunner. i manual install the win xp (year 2002) driver and it work on 7 >_< [ + quote]
rayals (Junior Member) 10 January 2009 9:01
Does anyone know if Windows 7 has the nasty DRM componet crap in it? I have continued to use XP SP3 because of this. I am currently DL'ing the Win7 OS to test. I will try it out. Thanks to all for your comments. [ + quote]
Morreale (Member) 10 January 2009 11:26
*Originally posted by Pop_Smith:* @Morreale, it is still build 7000, I got it directly from Microsoft this morning and am using it to post this. While some people say it is just "Windows Vista SP2" it looks that way but isn't. From what I can tell they have the "idea" of Vista there but they went and did major code optimizations. Basically, it looks to be what Microsoft hoped Vista to be. They also got drivers to work out the gate, I found drivers for every piece of equipment on my laptop without any fuss or having to resort to "hacks" etc. so things have been pleasant so far. Yes, it still has "lovely" activation but it's good for up to 120 days without a key and there are no annoying "activate now" popups. Peace How do you get a key... I have a key as I downloaded it off TPB but the key with it is a "default key" :S [ + quote]
SProdigy (Member) 10 January 2009 11:28
*Originally posted by jutsu:* and for beta 1, its very stable. the driver support also awesome. all detected and installed by windows. the only thing not work is ancient tv tunner. i manual install the win xp (year 2002) driver and it work on 7 >_< *Originally posted by PopSmith:* While some people say it is just "Windows Vista SP2" it looks that way but isn't. From what I can tell they have the "idea" of Vista there but they went and did major code optimizations. Basically, it looks to be what Microsoft hoped Vista to be. They also got drivers to work out the gate, I found drivers for every piece of equipment on my laptop without any fuss or having to resort to "hacks" etc. so things have been pleasant so far. 100% agree guys. This is the way Vista SHOULD have been made. For only a Beta, this thing is FAST. The Vista Beta and RC versions were much slower than the final product, which is saying alot of the development of Windows 7. I also had a problem with the TV Tuner, but... in Vista RC mine worked with the XP driver, however, in Vista's final build and SP1, that same driver didn't work and no support for it. However, it works with Windows 7. I hope a pattern isn't forming! [ + quote]
Cman (Member) 10 January 2009 13:26
Does it come in a 64bit flavor? I'm running Vista Ultimate 64bit and its really, really stable so I'm not really up for a beta challenge unless it can operate in a 64bit enviorment.. [ + quote]
Pop_Smith (Senior Member) 10 January 2009 14:47
*Originally posted by Cman:* Does it come in a 64bit flavor? I'm running Vista Ultimate 64bit and its really, really stable so I'm not really up for a beta challenge unless it can operate in a 64bit enviorment.. Yes, they do have a 64-bit version of Windows 7. You can download either the 32-bit or 64-bit versions of the ISO directly from Microsoft here, just select your preferred flavor and language: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-download.aspx Peace [ + quote]
omegaman7 (AfterDawn Addict) 11 January 2009 3:12
Thanks for the link POP_SMITH. Im downloading 64bit now 90% bandwidth capability :D Running 32 right now, but i'd like to try 64. Must admit, they've really out done themselves this time. VERY IMPRESSED. The only problem ive had was an outdated printer driver, but I worked some magic and vwalla :D Never tried vista, glad I waited! Good things come... [ + quote]
wolf123 (Member) 11 January 2009 12:17
Would like too know where other beta testers are on the net and if I run into problems where too go. Why would they say uit's halted if I just download it and alot faster then what the download manager said. 2 gigs under 20 mins nice. [ + quote]