Thushan Fernando Uncut

Almost missed this one, Paul Thurrott of WinSuperSite fame has previewed Windows 7 Beta 1 a day before Christmas – he must have been an ultra good  boy in that case.

Well, the waiting is finally over. What you’re looking at here is the eagerly awaited Windows 7 Beta, the pre-release version of Microsoft’s next operating system that will ship publicly by mid-January. As promised, there are no new features exposed in the Beta: Instead, Microsoft has tweaked all of the existed features that were announced at PDC 2008 and provided a build that is capable of day-to-day use. I’ll be reviewing the Windows 7 Beta soon.

Whilst most will have to wait a tinsy bit more before they get their hands on the ‘official’ Beta 1 release – tagged v6.1.7000.0 (winmain.win7beta.081212-1400).

Paul gives us a run down of the installation (part1, part2), first boot (part1 – with Windows Media Player, IE amongst the shots, part2 – Control panel applets, wireless, desktop UI changes).

If that wasnt enough, NeoWin also has a thread from a forum member of the leaked pre-release. Wow, is this not the best Christmas EVAR for l33tle geeks around the globe?

Related posts:

1. Windows Se7en: So it begins…
2. Going Deep: Inside Windows 7 with Mark Russinovich
3. Window 7: Information about the leaked build from WinHEC China
4. Microsoft releases Vista SP2 Beta and Windows Server 2008 SP2 Beta to public!
5. Microsoft releases Silverlight 2, and OpenOffice 3.0 goes out the door!