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According to the Microsoft Partner Program website, the Windows 7 beta will be officialy released at noon Friday: "Partners with a MSDN or TechNet subscription can download Windows 7 Beta now. All other partners can download Windows 7 Beta starting January 9, 2009 at 12:00 P.M. Pacific Time."
Noon has come and gone and Microsoft has not updated the official Windows 7 site, but the download links are active. Here are the direct links, courtesy of MSDN blogger Steve Clayton, via NeoWin. We have confirmed they work, but our readers are telling us some of their downloads are now getting interrupted. Also, if you use these links, you will still need to get a product key from Microsoft once the Windows 7 site updates or you will be restricted to a 30-day trial. You will also need to run a patch (check NeoWin or Steve’s blog for the details).
Direct Download Links:
If you’re having trouble, wait until later Friday afternoon and go to the official download site.
The reason for the delay is that overwhelming demand for the beta is crushing the Microsoft servers, according to a post by Windows team blogger Brandon LeBlanc (somebody please tell them about BitTorrent):
Due to very heavy traffic we’re seeing as a result of interest in the Windows 7 Beta, we are adding some additional infrastructure support to the Microsoft.com properties before we post the public beta. We want to ensure customers have the best possible experience when downloading the beta, and I’ll be posting here again soon once the beta goes live. Stay tuned! We are excited that you are excited!
A link to Microsoft’s TechNet website containing beta download links was circulated earlier Friday. The beta was released Wednesday to TechNet and MSDN subscribers. Even though the TechNet download links were not official, users all over the web tried to download the beta anyway. Some people got the links to work, but most couldn’t. The download links on TechNet were removed around noon Friday prior to the official release.
Other pages on Microsoft’s website, including the informational post that went up Thursday, are currently being crushed by the traffic load.
We will be updating this post with any new links as they surface.
Microsoft recommends going to the official Windows 7 page, but there’s no download info there yet. There is a message saying "Want to try the Beta? Come back the afternoon of January 9." That would indicate that there’s still an official link yet to come (remember, Microsoft is on Pacific time).
If you’re feeling abandoned, try checking back there.
Any Epicenter readers having any luck? Let us know in the comments.
[Last Update: 1:28pm PST]
Source: Michael Calore
