Microsoft delays first Windows 7 public beta An update to this story can be found here Microsoft has postponed broad availability of the first Windows 7 beta in order to keep up with anticipated download demand. According to reports from across the web, both the Windows 7 download page and Microsoft.com were intermittently unreachable earlier today as would-be …
...well, I got it off a torrent, but after enough searching around, I found that https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/productkeys/win7-64/enus/default.aspx gave me a valid download link and matching key (that I just used on my existing install). I think you have have signed in and gotten though the Technet registration process for it to work though... but it's worth a shot (change the 64 to a 32 if you're silly enough to want the 32bit one)
Since the rest of the internet downloaders have, maybe they should consider seeding a torrent, then we could all get a legal copy without this delay and the strain on their infrastructure!!! - written from IE8 in windows 7 that i got from msdn legally yesterday! (it ROCKS BTW!) :)
it insists the public beta was never posted. (Quote)
Well this just shows how much MS knows about it's own web sites as the download was available on the UK site. I twice managed to get to the "enter your email address" page before the "server busy" appeared, followed very shortly after by 404 errors, then "this page you are searching for does not exist". Now the page address re-directs to the Windows 7 home page.
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/windows-7/beta-download.aspx
Ah the pleasure of dealing with a well set-up software company... Not
I know I shouldn't be, but it constantly disappoints whenever one of these internet "events" take place,that the host almost always bombs under heavy demand. Apart from reinforcing the obvious fact that the internet isn't really that scalable - or robust, it must tell you something about the lack of forward thinking on the part fo the organisers.
As soon as you advertise something as "free" it's pretty much guaranteed that there'll be a stampede to the trough, whether the people downloading it know/care what it is, or not. Didn't Microsoft have even the merest inkling that there'd be a frenzy and that maybe (just maybe) it might be a clever idea to add some extra capacity - or even just seed a few torrents and let the P2P kiddies do the heavy lifting?
As it is, I doubt that many of the people who download this beta release will ever get around to using it. Mostly it will sit around on people's disks, unused and unloved, until either they need the space or see the file - and can't recall what it was and just delete it, thinking "what was I doing?"
While idly surfing I found these direct microsoft links which appear to be working for both 32bit & 64bit versions of build 7000
The 32-bit release
http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/3/3/633118BD-6C3D-45A4-B985-F0FDFFE1B021/EN/7000.0.081212-1400_client_en-us_Ultimate-GB1CULFRE_EN_DVD.iso
The 64-bt release
http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/3/3/633118BD-6C3D-45A4-B985-F0FDFFE1B021/EN/7000.0.081212-1400_client_en-us_Ultimate-GB1CULXFRE_EN_DVD.ISO
How difficult would it be to implement a bittorrent server? Or publish it to the akamai infrastructure which they already use for other things?
Sounds like they're stalling to me (what a shock): "we tried to release it on time but didn't because too many people would have downloaded it".
Slow downloads would be preferred to no downloads (imho).
I'm sure that if they put it on a linux server, it could handle the demand!!
Posted a few minutes ago by Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc on the Windows 7 Blog:
'I know many of you are concerned about getting a product key for the Windows 7 Beta and concerned about missing your chance to get a product key. I can't say much on this just yet but I will say you this: don't worry. :-)'
This tells me one of two things, either:
1. Microsoft cant organise a download
2. Its just marketing to up the hype
Whatever it is, Ive every reason to suspect that Windows 7 will be, as one poster very correctly put it: "like a new car from Detroit, lots of chrome with the same crap underneath"
Its not "Windows 7" its "Vista with a few GUI tweaks"
When you consider that what is putting many millions of small businesses off upgrading is the problem of supporting two architectures (XP and Vista) I cant see how adding a bunch of new GUI features that 99% of office workers will ever use addresses this.
Paris, she's dumb enough to install it.
Is it just me or are others suspicious about the current amount of 'hype' surrounding Win7?
How convenient is it that MS (who must have one of the biggest online infrastructures in the world) are having problems with such a 'popular' beta download? Front page news anyone?
The direct download links work just the download pages don't link there: (I obtained these from the description on a torrent download!)
32bit: http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/3/3/633118BD-6C3D-45A4-B985-F0FDFFE1B021/EN/7000.0.081212-1400_client_en-us_Ultimate-GB1CULFRE_EN_DVD.iso
64bit: http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/3/3/633118BD-6C3D-45A4-B985-F0FDFFE1B021/EN/7000.0.081212-1400_client_en-us_Ultimate-GB1CULXFRE_EN_DVD.iso
Although I hope M$ haven't gone with the "start as you mean to go on" principle, because this windows 7 beta has a "feature" where it apparently scans the hard drive and any network shares (!!) and trashes any mp3 files it finds (!!!!) so make sure you install this hotfix before letting it lose on your network:
32bit: http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/D/0/7D0A4440-7B8F-4ABC-8BEE-1AF6D80047EE/Windows6.1-KB961367-x86.msu
64bit: http://download.microsoft.com/download/F/B/7/FB7BC04D-66E6-413F-94F0-A54D0196EBDE/Windows6.1-KB961367-x64.msu
Although M$ isn't the only member of the self-inflicted DDoS club. It is odd that this isn't the first time they done this to themselves. I thought that these guys were supposed to be specialists in providing enterprise-class data center hosting and application services.
Given that the aggregate of earlier Windows variants still predominate the corporate desktop, it's no surprise that the world+dog would want to check out Win7 to see if it's worth their time to build and QA an image or three for deployment. Or with XP now 6 years long in the tooth, whether they should just go back to debugging that Linux desktop build they were planning.
Sometimes Old Bill's lackey's do show a spark of creativity.
Brilliant manipulation of the press. Announce a beta, purposely underprepare the hosting server, then make big spash with claiming massive demand for thier new product, so huge it requires them to rebuild thier servers.
That is so good, expect to see Steve Jobs and Co copy it within 12 months.
I know demand for this is enormous, but why is it taking so long for an entity the size of MS to add additional capacity? And what poor planning on their part anyway---it's not like they haven't offered beta products for download before...
I watched the site go from "server too busy" to "not available" to "maybe later" around 3pm EST yesterday.
... and it's the same as the ones that other people are getting. Supposed to be 10 installs per person/product key but they are giving out very few product key, most people are getting the same ones.
How on earth do they plan to limit this to 2.5 million people? Microsoft really have no idea what they are doing.
Happy face for Microsoft giving everyone a free OS.
Beta's just gone live and after several attempts at clicking on "Download Now" on the download page using FireFox 3, and nothing happening, I suddenly thought to try IE7... guess what? It worked first time - the Java applet installed and the MS Download Manager started.
FF users - if you want the beta and it's not starting, switch to IE and try it there.
Intentional? Or just sloppy coding by MS that their applet only works with IE?
I sense a drama coming on...
I was always told that the difference between 'alpha' and 'beta' was that 'alpha software' is not yet feature complete and highly likely to contain bugs, wheras 'beta software' is feature complete but may still contain significant bugs.
But then I've been in the industry for over 15 years, so being such a noob what would I know :p
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