Windows 7 beta - shipping January 13?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 03 December 2008 14:38

Opinion and Analysis

Despite rumours that the first official Windows 7 beta would arrive in December, even though Microsoft has always officially targeted January 2009, the latest evidence seems to point to January 13 being the day the beta goes live.

Although Windows 7 has been in pre-beta since the end of October this year, an OS I’ve been very happily using since that time, most people haven’t had access to the code, and have been (not so) patiently waiting for the first official beta to drop.

While the performance of the pre-beta has been astounding, there have been a few bugs here and there, along with the unavailability of the new “superbar” and other features that have only been accessible via the “Blue Badge” tool from Rafael Rivera.

His tools have been eagerly downloaded by pre-beta users around the world, including me, and they rock, but as they’ll be activated within the official January 13 beta, there’ll be a lot of interest from people who’ll want to try the real beta out for themselves.

The big question has always been as to exactly when this first beta would arrive. Officially, Microsoft has always suggested January 2009, but unofficial rumblings have pointed to sometime in December.

Well, it’s now December, and the anticipation has grown, especially among those who aren’t already enjoying the Windows 7 pre-beta. But now it seems clear that January 13 is the date, and while it’s a little disappointing, it’s hardly the end of the world.

The news comes from Keith Combs’ blog, a Microsoft employee who notes that attendees of the Microsoft Developer Conference in January would be getting a Windows 7 beta DVD.

He made it known that although there are a few dates for the Developer Conference in mid-December, attendees of those sessions would have the beta DVD mailed to them. Given that the first January event is on the 13th, this is the day the beta will arrive.

Continued on page 2! Please read on.