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?

Developer, Operating Systems, Windows, Windows 7, software fivestar, fivestarvip, microsoft, neowin, operating system, paul, vista, win7, winbeta, Windows, windows 7, winmain.win7beta.081212-1400

Found an interesting run down of some information about the leaked builds of Windows 7 from WinHEC China by Robert McLaws. Theres also some juicy bits about the much loved boot-screen in the upcoming Windows 7 release.

Developer, Kernel / Internals, Operating Systems, Security, Windows, Windows 7, software boot, china, leaked, progress, vista, Windows, windows 7, winhec

Thats right, get it while its hawt! SP2 Beta for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 is available for your downloading pleasure. Weighing in at 338Mb its one download for both OS’s.

SP2 is an update to Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista that addresses feedback from our customers and partners. By providing these fixes integrated into a single service pack, Microsoft provides a single high-quality update that minimizes deployment and testing complexity for customers.
In addition to all previously released updates, SP2 will contain changes focused on addressing reliability and performance issues, supporting new kinds of hardware, and adding support for several emerging standards. SP2 will also continue to make it easier for IT administrators to deploy and manage large installations of Windows Server 2008.

Service Pack 1 is a prerequisite for installing Service Pack 2. Please make sure that your system is running Service Pack 1 before you install Service Pack 2.
Windows Server 2008 SP2 Beta and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta - Five Language Standalone version can be installed on systems with any of the following language versions: English, French, German, Japanese, or Spanish.

Technet areas:

• Windows Vista SP2 TechNet
  

• Windows Server 2008 SP2 TechNet

Download links:

Developer, Kernel / Internals, Operating Systems, Windows, software beta, microsoft, prerelease, server, service pack, sp2, vista, Windows, windows server 2008, windows vista sp2

Unless you’ve been living under a rock under the Apple tree you would have heard that a little company in Redmond WA has been working on a new version of Windows dubbed Windows 7 (which is what it will actually be called for once!).

At PDC today, Microsoft finally unveiled the much-anticipated release of Windows 7 and handed out pre-beta bits to atendees (tagged 6801.winmain_win7m3.081020-1655). They demonstrated a newer build which was tagged 6933.winmain.081020-184 during PDC which unfortunately was not given out. Unfortunately I couldn’t go due to work constraints, but in case your in the same boat I’ve collected some of the best sources of info out there for you to browse through.

First and foremost, some pretty pictures of the glassy new desktop UI.

Some interesting articles out of the many out there that are recommended reading:

• PC Magazine’s Inside Windows 7 Pre-Beta - Probably the first thing you should read.
• Extreme Tech’s Why Windows 7 Will Suck Less Than Vista - Offers a comparison between Vista and 7

For the pretty screenshots, see galleries here and here. More information and probably a bit more discussion will follow soon.

EDIT:
ArsTechnica have got an updated build reviewed which goes into bit more depth too and NeoWin has posted a nice gallery walkthrough of the Win7 UI and details about Vista SP2.

.NET / CLR / C#, Developer, Operating Systems, Tools / Products, Windows, hardware, software apple, beta, bill, longhorn, microsoft, operating system, pdc, pre-release, redmond, seven, sp2, steve, vista, vista sp2, win7, Windows, windows 7, winmain

The next addition to in the series for Microsoft staring Bill Gates & Jerry Seinfeld trying to look normal.

A shorter version is also available with part 1 and part 2 in WMV format. Compared to the first release which took the two gentlement to Shoe-Circus I think this new (longer) version is far better.

“I Love a condiment with Booze in it.” - Jerry

“Because as we discussed, you and I are a little out of it… you’re living in some kind of moon house hovering over seatle like the mothership… I got so many cars I get stuck in my own traffic.” - Jerry

“The fact that a design uses inheritance and polymorphisim doesnt make it a good design.” - Bill
“…Are there any monsters in the story?” - Little kid in bed
“Yes! but its ok, theres a firewall.” - Bill

“Power off… ok, power on.” - Jerry whilst Bill doing the Robot

Personally I quite like this one, and the fact that Mr Gates does the robot - I mean come on….

.NET / CLR / C#, Developer, General, Its My Life, Operating Systems, Tools / Products, Web / Internets, Windows, humour bill gates, comedy, funny, humour, jerry seinfeld, microsoft, vista, Windows

So the commercial thats been on the tip of every geek and Seinfeld fan is finally out. Jerry Seinfeld feat Bill Gates - Shoe Circus…

What the?

Developer, Its My Life, Operating Systems, Windows, humour bill gates, comedy, funny, humour, jerry seinfeld, microsoft, vista