Official Windows 7 public beta coming this Friday

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 08 January 2009 09:05

IT Industry - Development

If you're not one of Microsoft's premium customers and you don't trust torrents, your wait for Windows 7 is almost over. Microsoft will release the Windows 7 public beta this Friday, January 9.

According to Microsoft officials, Windows 7 builds on the security, reliability and performance of Vista, while delivering support for new user interface features (including multitouch), improved battery life for mobile PCs, and faster startup, shutdown and standby.

After a select group of testers received a Windows 7 beta late last year, there were reports of torrents that delivered fake versions of the ISO file, along with suspicions that the files were seeded with malware and other nasties.

'Genuine' - though unauthorised - torrents subsequently appeared, and user reports seem generally positive.

But the official Windows 7 beta is now available for download by Microsoft's MSDN, TechBeta and TechNet customers, and everyone else will get their chance on Friday, January 9.

The public beta will be available via the Windows 7 home page.

According to the invitation that Microsoft sent to members of the media, the download takes about 40 minutes and the resulting file must be burned to DVD before it can be used.