Here are your Windows 7 beta 1 activation keys

By Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Sunday, 11 January 2009 12:14

Opinion and Analysis

All weekend as Windows 7 keys were hard to come by, people tried accessing Microsoft’s TechNet site to access their unique activation keys. Originally with a 2.5m download limit, people expected keys to go fast, but with that limit removed, it appears that the TechNet issued keys are generic – and I’ve used one to activate Windows 7 beta 1, so I know it works!

Activation keys used to “activate” software programs are meant to be unique, thus ensuring your key is not claimed or used by anyone else.

It was expected that with a download limit of 2.5 million copies of the Windows 7 beta, something that has now been reversed (until January 24), there was unsurprisingly an expectation that there would only be 2.5 million activation keys, too.

Thus a scramble emerged for users to try and secure their keys before all were gone. Sites all over the Internet (including iTWire) were showing users how to get Windows 7 keys from the Microsoft TechNet site using a simple method that required refreshing the page a lot.

However it now appears that there are 10 different keys which can be used to activate any copy of Windows 7 beta 1, be it the 32-bit or 64-bit version, and it appears that, at least for now, these keys can be used as many times as anyone likes.

Reported all over the Internet, these keys are as follows:

Windows 7 Beta 32-bit Product Key

6JKV2-QPB8H-RQ893-FW7TM-PBJ73
TQ32R-WFBDM-GFHD2-QGVMH-3P9GC
GG4MQ-MGK72-HVXFW-KHCRF-KW6KY
4HJRK-X6Q28-HWRFY-WDYHJ-K8HDH
QXV7B-K78W2-QGPR6-9FWH9-KGMM7

Windows 7 Beta 64-bit Product Key

7XRCQ-RPY28-YY9P8-R6HD8-84GH3
JYDV8-H8VXG-74RPT-6BJPB-X42V4
482XP-6J9WR-4JXT3-VBPP6-FQF4M
JYDV8-H8VXG-74RPT-6BJPB-X42V4
D9RHV-JG8XC-C77H2-3YF6D-RYRJ9

Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit keys appear to be completely interchangeable.

I personally used one of these keys to activate a copy of Windows 7 beta 1 on a Dell Mini 9 netbook, and given that these keys must have already been used by many, many people, the reports that they keys are generic and can be used by anyone seem to be true.

If you still haven’t downloaded your copy of the Windows 7 beta, you can now do it from the official Windows 7 site.