Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Saturday, 10 January 2009 09:30
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 4
Microsoft has seemingly underestimated demand for the official Windows
7 beta 1 download, launching its download program late and then pulling
the download due to “overwhelming demand”. Even so, direct download
links are available – and they’re working!
Ah, Microsoft Windows 7. After three months of “pre-beta” releases that leaked to the Internet, including the actual beta 1 7000 build that leaked to torrent sites on Christmas Day 2008, the official Beta 1 download is now available. Sort of.
You see, Microsoft had told the world via its CEO, Steve Ballmer, at the pre-CES keynote, that worldwide downloads would be available from Friday the 9th of January US time, which happens to be Saturday for Australians thanks to time zone issues.
Given the fact that many people were unwilling to try potentially dicey pirate downloads of pre- or actual beta 1 downloads of Windows 7 from torrent sites, and given the largely amazing feedback from those who had gone to the trouble of downloading pre-beta versions of Windows, the anticipation and demand for Windows 7 is unlike anything the world has seen since Windows 95.
Windows 7 is, after all, Windows Vista done right. I’ve personally been using pre-beta versions of Windows over the last three months, and Vista is now but a memory. Windows 7 really is that good!
Being a member of the MSDN program, and having had access to an official Windows 7 beta 1 download for the last couple of days, I’ve already upgraded a few friends to Windows 7, and so far, they’re delighted.
I’ve loaded it onto a Pentium IV machine with 512MB of RAM, onto an AMD machine with 1GB of RAM, a Pentium Dual Core machine also with 1GB of RAM and both Core Duo and Core 2 Duo machines with 2GB of RAM – all without issues.
Yes, the machine with only 512MB of RAM runs Windows 7 a little slowly, but the person with that configuration reports that its running faster than Windows XP was running, and they’re loving the new interface, even though their 32MB graphics card can’t run the Aero niceties of previews and Aero peeking.
But not everyone has a friend with MSDN, TechNet or Connect access, and has had to wait for Windows 7 to become officially available from Microsoft’s
Windows 7 site.
The problem is, the official site now has this message: “
Thanks for your interest in the Windows 7 Beta. The volume has been phenomenal—we're in the process of adding more servers to handle the demand. We're sorry for the delay and we'll re-post the Beta as soon as we can ensure a quality download experience.”
The good news is this message needn’t worry you, for there is a way to officially download Windows 7 legally right now.
Getting a product activation key is still an issue, but with 30 days up your sleeve before activation is actually needed, the main concern is downloading the software, which is an approx 2.4GB download for the 32bit version, and over 3GB for the 64bit version.
Details are on page 2 – please read on!
