Windows 7 Beta 1 - Unleashed!

Jealous of the fact that I've been playing with Windows 7 since before Christmas? Can't wait to get your hands on the beta? Your wait is almost over.

Last night Microsoft head honcho Steve Ballmer announced that Windows 7 Beta 1 would be made immediately available to a select number of beta testers, that today (Thursday) Technet and MSDN subscribers would be able to get their hands on the downloads, and that a public beta would be released by Friday.

Some points worth making:

• Downloads available to beta testers are as follows: - Ultimate x86 and x64 - Home Premium x86 and x64 (not sure if this is only available to a select number of testers) - Server - Server Web - Server IA64
• The build that I've been looking at is the beta release - 7000.0.081212-1400
• A patch is available for the media player issue that can corrupt certain MP3 files

A couple of other points worth clearing up:

• Many of you have wondered (some aloud, some privately in emails) as to where I got early access to the beta 1 from. Let's just say that I have my sources. My copy of the code did not come via a P2P route (I had code before it was leaked onto P2P) although had I not had access to the code I would have probably downloaded the beta nonetheless. Also, I broke no NDAs to bring you the information that I did.
• I've not released detailed benchmark information on the Beta 1. The reason for this is two-fold: - The EULA forbids the publishing of benchmarking results without prior consent from Microsoft. I have approached Microsoft to discuss benchmarking but so far the company has declined to cooperate. - It's early days yet! However, regular readers will notice that I have published outline information relating to performance that will help you get a feel for Windows 7.

If you have any questions, fire away!