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Windows 7 Beta Testing

Dec. 16, 2008 Paul Thurrott | Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows

I get a lot of email about getting on the Windows 7 beta. Here’s the info from a Microsoft spokesperson:

“We are in the early stages of soliciting beta testers for Windows 7, but do not have any additional information to share at this time. For updates on the development of Windows 7, please visit the Engineering Windows 7 and Windows Team blogs for updates.”

Also of note is this letter, which is being sent to Windows 7 beta testers:

Please do not respond to this e-mail. This mailbox is not monitored. Please note: due to Microsoft security requirements, the hyperlink(s) contained in this e-mail may not automatically open your browser. If this happens, please copy and paste the link into the address bar of your browser.

The contents and messaging in this email are confidential and proprietary information of Microsoft Corporation. Recipients may not reproduce, store in or introduce into a retrieval system, or transmit in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), the information in this email for any purpose, without the express written permission of Microsoft Corporation

Dear [First Name],

The Microsoft Windows® beta team would like to extend an invitation to you to participate in the Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows Server® 2008 R2 beta program planned for early 2009 as announced at the Professional Developers Conference Oct 2008. Accepting this invitation will allow you to access pre-release versions of the next version of Windows for the purpose of evaluating and providing feedback. We highly value your past feedback and know we can count on you again to help us build a great new version of Windows!

The beta version is not available quite yet but we need to assemble a great team of beta testers early so you are ready to go when we are! If you accept this invitation you’ll be notified when the beta version becomes available. In the meantime you can visit http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows7 and http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008R2 to learn more about what’s coming.

What you will get if you choose to participate

· Early access to downloadable beta copies of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2

· Access to private newsgroups to discuss the beta with other testers and with Microsoft staff

· Access to various online events that will highlight new features and allow you to interact with the development team

· The ability to report bugs and track their status

· An opportunity to help us build a better Windows by assisting us in finding and fixing issues

What we will ask of you if you choose to participate

· We request that you download, burn to DVD and install Windows and/or Windows Server on at least one PC

· We ask that you actively participate in discussions on the newsgroups and share your opinions with us and others

· We also request that you file bugs if you encounter them as well as respond to surveys as you can.

· We may ask you to consider being a press reference or invite you to share your Windows 7 user experience with others

Things you should know about Windows 7 and the beta program

· The beta will be available in English, German, Japanese and Arabic. A language pack for Hindi will also be provided

· Availability will be via download only. No media will be provided so you’ll need a DVD burner to create installation media

· PCs that support and run Windows Vista should allow you to run Windows 7.

· Servers that support and run Windows Server 2008 should allow you to run Windows Server 2008 R2

· Participating in the beta does not necessarily mean you will receive a free final product.

· Participation is strictly voluntary but we ask that if you do accept this invitation you report bugs as you see them as well as actively participate in the newsgroups and other events.

· Spots are limited and from time to time we may remove inactive participants in order to make space available for others who are willing to actively provide feedback.

Accepting Your Invitation

To accept this invitation and become a member of this program, follow this link: .
If this link does not work for you, copy the full link and paste it into the Web browser address bar. You may be prompted to sign-in with your LiveID credentials.

Getting Started

While beta will not be available until early 2009 we, know you are excited to get started so we have opened the microsoft.beta.win7.lobby so you may begin renewing acquaintances with previous participants as well as meeting new testing peers. After accepting the invitation, you will be able to sign into Microsoft Connect and click on the “Windows 7 Beta Program” link for more information on accessing the newsgroups.

As well, to better understand our audience and how we are asking you to complete the following three surveys to tell us about yourself. Each survey has 20-40 questions and each should take you approximately 20-30 minutes to complete. You don’t have to take them all at once nor do you have to do it right now. We ask though that at some point you find time to complete them. As a thank-you for completing these prior to the end of the calendar year (Prior to January 1st, 2009) each participant who completes all three surveys (or indicates “already taken”) will be put into a drawing and five winners selected to receive some Windows 7 logo’ed toys!

Participant Survey Part 1 - http://connect.microsoft.com/Survey/Survey.aspx?SurveyID=7322&SiteID=488

Participant Survey Part 2 - http://connect.microsoft.com/Survey/Survey.aspx?SurveyID=7323&SiteID=488

Participant Survey Part 3 - http://connect.microsoft.com/Survey/Survey.aspx?SurveyID=7324&SiteID=488

The team would like to thank-you in advance for helping make this our best OS release to date and we look forward to hearing what you have to say!

Regards,

The Windows Customer Connection Team

If you do not wish to receive e-mail messages from this specific program, you need to "Decline Participation" on the Microsoft Connect My Participation page, since receiving program-specific e-mail is a mandatory part of your participation. If you do not wish to receive any e-mail messages from Microsoft Connect in the future, please send e-mail to mchelp@microsoft.com with the subject, "Remove Me From Microsoft Connect," and all your information will be completely removed from Microsoft Connect. If you need Microsoft Connect support for any other reason, visit the Microsoft Connect Contact Us page. This is an unmonitored e-mail address, so please do not reply to this message.

Discuss this Article 64

tayme
on Dec 16, 2008
@DRWAM - Are you listening??? --tayme
alamfour
on Dec 16, 2008
Cool, so what do you have to do to get this invitation to the Windows 7 Beta program?
Ocean
on Dec 16, 2008
I'm in. I look forward to adding my 2 cents.
jmoo2
on Dec 16, 2008
Is it just me or do the survey links at the bottom not work? James
BrightrevCarl
on Dec 16, 2008
Thought I'd chime in with a comment saying I'm interested, on the off-chance Microsoft thinks that people who read WinSuperSite are good candidates for beta testing Windows. Somehow that makes way too much sense. ;-)
sharp65
on Dec 16, 2008
@jmoo2 The links will only work for you if you've received an invitation and accept it.
chustar
on Dec 16, 2008
"The contents and messaging in this email are confidential and proprietary information of Microsoft Corporation. Recipients may not reproduce, store in or introduce into a retrieval system, or transmit in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), the information in this email for any purpose, without the express written permission of Microsoft Corporation" Oooh, Paul's being a naughty boy!
robertsjoe
on Dec 16, 2008
Microsoft Internet Explorer users told to switch browsers because IE is seriously flawed. This is just something most of the early adopters, technical people and non-sheep have always known. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/dec/16/internet
sharp65
on Dec 16, 2008
@robertsjoe Patch is coming out tomorrow, good try though.
Ymaster587
on Dec 16, 2008
@robertsjoe PMS?
robertsjoe
on Dec 16, 2008
@sharp65: Tomorrow is too late for some people caught using IE. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jrRXNcvxym3RsLW_I...
Waethorn
on Dec 16, 2008
@robertsjoe: Using Google as a source is a poor example: http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2320
robertsjoe
on Dec 16, 2008
Don't forget to have your anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-rootkit pieces of bloatware running on your Windows boxes people! Don't wanna get infected.
Waethorn
on Dec 16, 2008
"Don't forget to have your anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-rootkit pieces of bloatware running on your Windows boxes people! Don't wanna get infected." UAC already mitigates the issue without the help of AV software. Thanks for sharing though.
sharp65
on Dec 16, 2008
You can tell he's getting desperate, pretty funny :)
robertsjoe
on Dec 16, 2008
What a great OS, OS X, to not have to worry about the crap that Windows users do. Woohoo!
SandmanX82
on Dec 16, 2008
@robertsjoe You sound like one of those kids that need confirmation for everything. "Look at me...I'm cool right? Look at me, I'm cool! There's nothing wrong with me." Except yours is....."OS X is great. I have to let everyone know, OS X is great. Better than windows...better than everything. If I repeat it enough, it has to be true!" If you like OS X so much, why aren't you playing with iMovie or iTunes or iDVD or i(insert original name here) instead of hanging out here all the time?
ehcap
on Dec 16, 2008
I have always wondered why does robertsjoe waste his time replying to a thread he is not interested in. I don't see myself wasting precious time trolling an Apple blog for the fun of it, but sometimes people don't have anything better to do. Anyway, I'm looking forward on Paul's Win7 impressions, I don't agree with his simple vs. easy post since the taskbar can be set to work just like in Vista (or close) and Aero Snaps are easy, simple and useful; but I enjoy his articles and can't wait to read his opinion on Beta.
Waethorn
on Dec 16, 2008
@ehcap: He has mommy and daddy issues. He must be attention-starved.
robertsjoe
on Dec 16, 2008
"Anyway, I'm looking forward on Paul's Win7 impressions, I don't agree with his simple vs. easy post since the taskbar can be set to work just like in Vista (or close) and Aero Snaps are easy, simple and useful;" Both things copied from OS X.
realtestman
on Dec 16, 2008
robertsjoe - talking rubbish as usual. While he talks rubbish, the rest of us just get on with using our PCs and Macs as we want to.
lilserenity
on Dec 16, 2008
What I don't get is that robertsjoe is supposedly an adult, arguing about things we used to in secondary school (high school), which is better the ZX Spectrum or the Commodore 64? The answer is... Yes! But we have moved on and realised that nobody gives a fuck. All we care about is getting on with our work, using computers in our leisure time and so forth. If anything the new Windows taskbar is a retrograde step as it does look like the Dock, it probably works quite a lot like the Dock, and as a Mac user as well as a Windows user, I can't stand the Dock. It's the single most annoying, frustrating and poorly designed UI concept that entered OS X and hung around like a bad odour with every release since. Anyway robertsjoe, please pack it in, we hear you very loud and clear, but please for heaven's sake, realise one thing: you're very unlikely to change anybody's opinons when you put across your points in a well constructed manner, but you're likely never to if you argue in what is frankly a very childish and unfounded way, and belittles your 'cause' even more. You're the very kind of user that my Windows-only friends trot out as a stereotype when the issue of me using a Mac comes up, and the problem is, I can't disagree with them anymore because they are right.
ehcap
on Dec 16, 2008
"Both things copied from OS X." What? Letting the user set the taskbar to work just like Vista was copied from OS X?... That's a new one... Are you actually reading to what you are replying? I know, I know, you are talking about the damned dock (first seen in 1985 on Arthur OS), but I wasn't talking about the dock-like features just as nobody is talking about Apple. Grow up man.
gorath
on Dec 17, 2008
I thought the new taskbar (and indeed the dock) function the same as the original windows 1.01 taskbar. They both actually even look like an updated windows 1.01 taskbar.
maati
on Dec 17, 2008
robertsjoe is getting desperate... he thinks that if he repeats his "OS X is better" a billion times, perhaps it becomes true... just ignore the troll^^
weedmonk
on Dec 17, 2008
People, don't indulge our rabid iBoi's too much. So much of their self worth is drawn from OSX Kitty that it turns them to insufferable effete tr0lls. As far as the beta goes, I didn't get one of those emails unfortunately. I've tested couple of other products on Connect and was hoping they'd send one out. Looks like I'll avail myself of the beta via BT once again. I'm on build 6956 and haven't booted into Vista for almost 2 weeks now. They really have me impressed.
Waethorn
on Dec 17, 2008
"Anyway robertsjoe, please pack it in" He already said he would, but hasn't come through. Just another Mackie lie.
gorath
on Dec 17, 2008
@ehcap I don't want to start a flaming war, just correcting some facts to the best of my knowledge. AFAIK, Arthur (RISCOS's predecessor) was released in late 1986, which means that Windows 1.01 was still the first OS with a taskbar, and that particular taskbar looked and behaved in ways similar to 7's new taskbar, and, of course, OSX's dock. I recall some add-on for early mac OS's that gave very dock-like features as well. (if someone knows better, feel free to correct, I am, sadly, fairly interested in modern OS genesis)
gorath
on Dec 17, 2008
Oh, and just for clarity (and again, to the best of my memory) Windows 1.01 was released late in 1985, looked gash, and was horrible to use.
Dipsh t Admin
on Dec 17, 2008
roberstjoe, once again, what happened to leaving? You so confidently stated that you were leaving, but yet, you are still here. My guess is that you have been worrying all night since you heard that Steve won't be presenting at MacWorld next year, so you have to vent somehow.
lilserenity
on Dec 17, 2008
The little pull out strip as I call it first appeared in System 7.1 I think in 1991 as I believe *could be wrong* it was originally a little control strip for the PoweBook 100 which controlled things like modem, sound volume, brightness, LCD bit depth etc. This was extended somewhat with System 7.5 and steadily added to in Mac OS 8/9. Personally I found it a little annoying when you only had 800x600 of screen estate tops to play with, and even worse on 640x480 when you were meddling in Photoshop 3 on an LCIII. As for the Windows 1 'Dock' I don't recall one to be honest, but then I have never actually used Windows 1 (either at the time or retospectively on an emulator/VM) -- however if it was anything like Windows 2/3 -- they were minmised windows at the bottom of the screen (sometimes referred to as iconified windows) which could be right clicked on to maximise, dragged around etc. they were nothing more than desktop icons really. The exception was the clock which certainly in Windows 2.03 and onwards when minimised would show the time at the bottom of the screen. If this is what is referred to as Windows 1's 'Dock' -- I would say they were more icons on a desktop than a contained and controlled area of the screen. RiscOS -- I can't recall much about that except it did have something very much like the task bar to launch applications and control a few settings. Amiga Workbench had nothing like the Dock until a very late version in the 90s which I have never used, although some applications did 'iconify' to the desktop/Workbench window. I do recall a file manager called Directory Opus that allowed the creation of custom 'strips' that could launch and manage programs and that would have been in the late 80s/early 90s. NeXTStep is by right the closest to what is now the Dock in OS X. Wherever the idea came from, I still hate it as an idea. It's cumbersome, clumsy, accessible as a duck's ass and is only really usable when it is set to hide when the mouse is not at the bottom of the screen. That said apart from Expose which made a tremendous difference in Panther (OS X) -- I have never found Mac OS (classic and X) particularly strong when it came to window management. Certainly I remember using OS X 10.1 (10.0 was unusable) and 10.2 in particular and many design houses/individuals actually continued to use OS 9 as the boot OS as it became a nightmare managing open projects alone with the Dock. Expose helped a huge amount. In terms of window management, I generally find the XP/Vista task bar to be the best and by extension KDE/Gnome on Linux as they're very much the same (grouping of like windows, taskbar like program switching) with the addition of Expose like functionality when you use Compiz. Nobody should be surprised that I haven't installed yDock on my Windows boxes nor Avant Window Navigator on my OpenSUSE laptop.
gorath
on Dec 17, 2008
windows 1.01 taskbar circa 1985 http://toastytech.com/guis/win101aboutnote.gif hope that link works It then dissappeared with windows 2.x and didn't return to windows until win95. Now it's coming back in almost it's original form in windows 7.
lilserenity
on Dec 17, 2008
Thanks gorath, looks very much like the iconised/iconfied icons in Windows 2/3 -- I guess the behaviour must have been different -- as I say, never used the first version of Windows. This is Win 3.1: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/images/windows-311-hotdog-stand-scheme.png Hehe, I preferred Black Leather Jacket for the colour scheme, anyway, down the bottom is a bunch of iconised windows, but these could also be minimsed apps like Notepad, Word, Powerpoint, CorelDraw etc. not just windows. They weren't shortcuts mind, just the minimised representation of the application that was running. I'm guessing the Win 1 'dock' had icons for applications that were not running.
RobertC
on Dec 17, 2008
I suspect Apple has nothing of interest to announce at MacWorld any more, hence its swift exit and Jobs' withdrawal. Sums up a pretty lame year for Apple. Leaving aside the iPhone 3G "upgrade" (aka, the inclusion of features that other phones have had for years); Apple released new macbooks, whose main selling point was a new manufacturing process to justify the exorbitant selling price.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Dec 17, 2008
RobertC The change to a Schindler keynote would tend to agree with Paul's statement from a week ago "BTW ... My prediction for Snow Leopard? August 2009." It certainly makes it extremely unlikely that the rumored Snow Leopard or i7 Macs or non-trivial refreshes of iMac or Mac Pro or Mac mini or iPhone will show up in January. Of course, it could also be a way of telegraphing that nothing new is coming out in a last ditch attempt to push Apple holiday sales. (Whether anything new is coming out or not)
tayme
on Dec 17, 2008
We can all sit here and consider the "meaning" of Apple's announcement that Jobs will not be giving the keynote...but when school gets out, I am sure that robertsjoe will be here to give us the reason...and it will be loud and often. BTW, after 2 days of using the Samsung Omnia and WinMo...I still like it - a lot! This phone is pretty feature rich and is very responsive. Now, come on Microsoft...roll out a Zune client for WinMo, so I can add my subscription music to the 8GB internal/soon to arrive via UPS 16GB micro SD that I bought on Amazon - New Egg was cheaper, but I had a $25 gift card from work! --tayme
mikegalos@msn.com
on Dec 17, 2008
tayme It is absolutely amazing to watch virtually every Apple blog step all over themselves to NOT talk about the MacWorld bailout. The silence is just fascinating.
Lindy
on Dec 17, 2008
Really Mike???? http://www.macworld.com/ http://www.appleinsider.com/ http://www.macrumors.com/ All mention it. The popular rumor is that Apple wants to control its media events and not have to release products for this event. I would agree with that since Apple events get lots of free coverage and they cant fully control when. Hey Canadiot no links to malware today? Come on I bet this is how you drum up business. Send links to your customers get the infected then bill them to fix the problem. That link yesterday was the king of all j@ck@$$ moves on this site. It takes the cake and I dont think it will be topped.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Dec 17, 2008
Mention, sure. But not major coverage. Seriously, it's getting about the same coverage as a minor bug fix to a 2nd tier app.
Lindy
on Dec 17, 2008
Lol on the top of every one of them. Sorry your WRONG!!!! But we all know you could NEVER admit that. You make laugh. Macworld is the biggest name for online Mac info and right now its at the very top of its All Stories section and its Top Stories. On Macrumors its consumes the top 3 stories. Maybe you should see an eye doctor.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Dec 17, 2008
What's really amusing is that Jobs pulling out of the keynote isn't even slowing down the "EXCLUSIVE: All the wonderful new things our sources say Apple is sure to announce at MacWorld, really, we mean it this time" articles on the same sites.
Waethorn
on Dec 17, 2008
"That link yesterday was the king of all j@ck@$$ moves on this site. It takes the cake and I dont think it will be topped." You underestimate your own ability to comment sir.
Lindy
on Dec 17, 2008
So Canadiot that Mac Worm that took down that corporation.....was it really a link from you?
lotsamystuff
on Dec 17, 2008
"mikegalos" spews this nonsense: "It is absolutely amazing to watch virtually every Apple blog step all over themselves to NOT talk about the MacWorld bailout. The silence is just fascinating." Then he backpedals slightly: "Mention, sure. But not major coverage." Everyone, please forgive poor "mikegalos". He's from the Sean Hannity School Of Commentary: "If you say it long enough, people will believe you". According to Google, there are currently 1,052 news articles about Jobs' Macworld no-show. is that "major" enough for you, "mikegalos"? Grow up. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&ncl=1280942010
johnbaxter
on Dec 17, 2008
Why are we talking about Macworld Expo here? Worth talking about somewhere, but "winsupersite" implies Windows.
Lindy
on Dec 17, 2008
Mike has also said that a new Mini wont come out. Jan 9th or whatever is not far away. http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/12/rumor-new-mac-m.html Lets see if Mikey "stands corrected" Especially on the part about not making it easy for you to replace the RAM.
Lindy
on Dec 17, 2008
@johnbaxter ask Paul why he talks about Apple products so much.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Dec 17, 2008
johnbaxter Because we're in the holiday season blackout on real news. Kind of like the silly season in political stories during the summer. .
mikegalos@msn.com
on Dec 17, 2008
Lindy, Let's hear your predictions on what Apple will announce at MacWorld...
tayme
on Dec 17, 2008
@mikegalos - Nice shift of gears, there...What about the "fascinating silence"? --tayme

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