Windows 7 Beta download will be available before January 5th

committed to database on December 21, 2008 at 3:18 am Eastern Standard Time 46 comments digg this

Ed Bott, a good friend of mine, recently predicted that Windows 7 Beta bits are going to be publicly unveiled on January 13, during CES. Some late night scrounging around revealed that Windows 7 could be available sooner -- via download links slipped into the next Microsoft Action Pack Subscription quarterly update kit, which starts shipping January 5, 2009. Word internally is that the beta build was already baked a while ago, we just have to be patient.

Update (Dec 23): Microsoft has removed all mention of Windows 7 Beta.

MAPS Kit Contents ScreenshotScreenshot of MAPS kit contents. The superscript 5 means “download only”. No DVDs.

  1. dovella December 21, 2008 at 4:39 am

    THX RAFAEL!!!!!!!!!!!

  2. Orion December 21, 2008 at 10:14 am

    This is sooooo awesome!

    My dad is an action pack subscriber too!

    Looking forward to the Windows 7 beta!

    :D

  3. Pizzaboy192@OSBG December 21, 2008 at 2:09 pm

    how hard would it be to hack up an upgrade kit to upgrade from 6801 to build 7xxx?

  4. Chris December 21, 2008 at 3:06 pm

    lord its a beta dude, just backup your files, reinstall with the newer files and then reinstal your apps with all the latest drivers/apps etc…

  5. João Piedade December 21, 2008 at 5:43 pm

    No, that’s not true. ;-)

  6. Rafael December 21, 2008 at 5:44 pm

    What’s not true? Can you be more specific?

  7. João Piedade December 21, 2008 at 6:20 pm

    The day of the beta’s release. Microsoft Portugal said me the true date but I mustnt share with you, sorry.

  8. Rafael December 21, 2008 at 6:41 pm

    All I said was the release would happen *before January 5th*. It makes no sense to have a release after this date, correct?

  9. João Piedade December 21, 2008 at 7:13 pm

    Maybe to MSDN and Technet subscribers! To the public in general, the day of the beta’s release is after January 5th (and this information is officialy correct).

  10. Rafael December 21, 2008 at 10:56 pm

    Oh yes, I know the general public won’t see it until later, but the general public usually doesn’t care about Windows beta testing anyway.

  11. Neil December 21, 2008 at 11:21 pm

    Want a Bet ????

  12. Verticall December 21, 2008 at 11:28 pm

    Windows 7 Beta 1 DL is due on Jan 5th, 2009. Check it out: http://www.exploitn.com/index.php?showtopic=99

  13. Jay December 21, 2008 at 11:42 pm

    Note i care and im part of the general public :)

  14. shipit December 22, 2008 at 12:43 am
  15. Neil December 22, 2008 at 2:44 am

    Me too ! :)

  16. Madata© December 23, 2008 at 4:49 pm

    Looks like they have removed it from the MAPS Website? does not look like they will be releasing as scheduled?

    https://partner.microsoft.com/global/40013779#ws

    Not sure?

    Any news?

  17. ken snyder December 26, 2008 at 5:26 am

    this sounds great but i’m running Windows 7 (build 69xx, can’t remember if its 6936 or 6956, how do you tell?) in a VMWare session and after telling me it needs to restart I come back and nothing seems to have changed. Is there anyone that has got this to work within VMWare? Is there anything special I should try with this configuration?

  18. Agnitum December 27, 2008 at 11:49 pm

    The Windows 7 build 7000 BETA 1 DVD image
    is already making its way around certain torrent sites

  19. James December 28, 2008 at 6:45 am

    Yeah, the scene have released it already.

    Microsoft Windows 7 Beta 1 Build 7000 x86 DVD-WinBeta

    Downloading from usenet now.

  20. Jason Bailey January 2, 2009 at 1:55 pm
  21. vikrant January 8, 2009 at 2:25 pm

    Microsoft Announces Windows7 beta will be available on 9th January 2009. Get your copy of Windows7 beta on 9th jan 2009.

  22. piano tuning wrench January 27, 2009 at 5:22 pm

    Общая сумма разума на планете — величина постоянная, а население растет…

  23. briz February 12, 2009 at 5:05 am

    hi i like to down load windows 7 beta

  24. edy April 20, 2009 at 2:07 pm

    gfh

  25. Babylya May 14, 2009 at 12:47 am

    Вот так,несогласен с предыдущими блоггерами
    ) Bye

  26. Gostixel May 16, 2009 at 4:39 am

    Хм,согласен с предыдущими ораторами
    Споки :-)