Microsoft slates Windows 7 public beta for early 2009

Download will be available to all, company says


(Computerworld) Microsoft Corp. today said that it would expand testing of Windows 7 to the general public in early 2009.

As it told attendees at its Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles that they would receive an alpha edition of Windows 7 later today, Microsoft also said that it would issue a public beta of the Vista successor early next year.

The beta will be available to anyone for download, Microsoft said, according to several real-time blogs covering the event, including one at LiveSide.net where several noted Windows bloggers collaborated.

Previously, Microsoft said it would solicit beta testers using its normal process of gathering names from its Connect.com site.

Interest in Windows 7 grew when Microsoft began talking up the new operating system in May during a one-day marketing blitz, and it intensified last month when the company announced it would issue "pre-beta" copies of the in-development operating system to attendees at both PDC this month and at next week's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), also to be held in Los Angeles.

Microsoft has not spelled out pricing for Windows 7, revealed the number of separate editions of the OS it will sell, or even announced a definitive ship date. Thus far, company executives have only targeted late 2009 or early 2010 as the release time frame.

The company rolled out the first wide-scale public beta of Windows Vista in June 2006, about five months before it wrapped up the operating system.

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Doctor Inferno wrote:

Download will be available to all, company says

Its Vista revamped fella's.......The kernel remains basically the same. If you dont like Vista at today's rate, chances are windows7 will not change your mind cause it offers nothing fundamentally new that you cant already achieve in Vista.

Doctor Inferno wrote:

Microsoft has killed the Sidebar in Windows 7, but the Gadgets it contained live on. They simply sit wherever you choose to place them on your desktop.

Already do this.....ever heard of drag n drop?

Doctor Inferno wrote:

Both the Taskbar and the Start Menu now include Jump Lists--context-sensitive selections of actions relating to a particular application, such as files you've used recently or access frequently.

A feature that really amounts to 'touch of the keyboard' lazyness!

Doctor Inferno wrote:

Device Stage is a new feature that gathers all of the information (everything from drivers and applications to manuals) relating to a particular phone, printer, or other piece of hardware, and lets you access it from a single window. But it will show up only if device vendors create an XML document based on a Microsoft template, a document that also must be approved by Microsoft. The good news is that such documents are a lot easier to create than new device drivers--and vendors can stick with the drivers created for Vista.

As above!

Doctor Inferno wrote:

Windows 7 introduces Libraries, which are virtual folders that provide easy access to related content, regardless of its location on your PC or even on your network. While the OS will ship with several preset Libraries (Documents, Music, Photos, Video) based on file type, you can create additional Libraries based on criteria you set, such as music genre or photos created on a specific date.

Again.....As above!

Doctor Inferno wrote:

Vista's famously annoying User Account Control becomes less annoying: It now lets you control which potential security risks it alerts you to, and which ones it lets slide.

I wonder if you can still simply turn it off and use the Registry fix to stop the OS from searching and loading the unnecessary drivers? Seems easy with Vista!

Need i go on.....you get my point!

Dont wish to sound negative, however only the common user will think this is superior to vista!