News

Windows 7 Beta Availability Extended to Feb. 9

Microsoft has extended the general public availability of its Windows 7 Beta yet again, with a new final date of Feb. 9 to get it.

Microsoft on Friday announced that it has extended the general public availability of its Windows 7 Beta yet again, with a new final date of Feb. 9 to get it. The deadline doesn't apply to Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and Microsoft TechNet Plus subscribers.

For those who partially downloaded the beta, Feb. 11 is the last day to complete that download.

Those who don't have product keys will still be able to get them, even after Feb. 11, according to Microsoft's announcement. Without the product key, the beta will work but it then will expire after just 30 days.

Microsoft plans to end the Windows 7 Beta on Aug. 1, and a release candidate version is expected to follow. The release candidate version will be announced after Microsoft gathers sufficient feedback, according to a Microsoft forum.

"The feedback we get in the early stages of Beta will help enable us to discuss the next Windows 7 milestone," a TechNet post explained.

ZDNet writer Ed Bott deduced that the Windows 7 release candidate would be available after July 1 and before Aug. 1, based on language in the Windows 7 Beta release notes. If so, that would give beta testers some time to move to the latest version.

Microsoft's view is that the beta should not be used with valuable user data. While many in a TechNet forum have been requesting an upgrade path from the beta, Microsoft hasn't provided that assurance so far.

Currently, Microsoft is saying that not all antivirus programs will work with the Windows 7 Beta. Three vendors have compatible solutions, including AVG, Kaspersky and Symantec, according to Microsoft's blog.

For those looking for an overview of Windows 7's features, a detailed list is provided by Tim Sneath, director of the Windows and Silverlight technical evangelism team.

The general public can get the beta at the Windows 7 download page here.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

comments powered by Disqus

Featured

  • GitHub Expands Copilot Enterprise Search in Visual Studio and VS Code

    GitHub supercharged search for its Copilot Enterprise AI assistant in both Microsoft's Visual Studio IDE and Visual Studio Code so developers can now get results from well beyond local codebases, including the internet.

  • What's New in TypeScript 5.5, Now Generally Available

    Microsoft shipped the latest iteration of its type-infused superset of JavaScript, TypeScript 5.5, introducing inferred type predicates, control flow narrowing, JSDoc @import and other enhancements.

  • GitHub Copilot for Azure Gets Preview Glitches

    This reporter, recently accepted to preview GitHub Copilot for Azure, has thus far found the tool to be, well, glitchy.

  • New .NET 9 Templates for Blazor Hybrid, .NET MAUI

    Microsoft's fifth preview of .NET 9 nods at AI development while also introducing new templates for some of the more popular project types, including Blazor Hybrid and .NET MAUI.

  • What's Next for ASP.NET Core and Blazor

    Since its inception as an intriguing experiment in leveraging WebAssembly to enable dynamic web development with C#, Blazor has evolved into a mature, fully featured framework. Integral to the ASP.NET Core ecosystem, Blazor offers developers a unique combination of server-side rendering and rich client-side interactivity.

Most   Popular

Subscribe on YouTube