Windows Vista Beta 2 Available for (Legal) Download

Microsoft has just released Windows Vista Beta 2 for download. Scroll down to the country selection box and enter in your Passport ID. Microsoft will provide a serial number that can be used on up to 10 machines. The download is a DVD ISO image that must be burned before installing which should self-select against the most novice of users.

Once installed, Vista will complain about the lack of a virus scanner. At this time, both Computer Associates and Trend Micro are giving away free trial software. Give either one a try–they are both great.

Also go grab the lastest Vista drivers for your video card to get Aero Glass working. nVidia Vista drivers for x86 and x64 are available. Ati Vista drivers for Radeon cards for x86 and x64 are also available. Go to ATI’s main Vista Driver knowledge base article to pick the appropriate driver if you have a notebook or motherboard with built-in graphics. If after installing the drivers Aero Glass does not work after clicking the check box, chances are you need to have Vista reevaluate the performance rating of your system. Once that is done, an Aero Glass compatible system will yield the transparent interface.

When testing don’t be surprised with the numerous bugs, broken functionality, and many current applications failing to install–this is a beta! Although the latest Beta 2 detected all of my hardware except my smartcard reader, I’m not impressed. As per my previous post, there are some issues with 802.1x authentication which is quite a large hindrance. The other annoyance is the new non-admin user model. It is completely broken and illogical. Inevitably, those people that get Vista Beta 2 working on their hardware will complain about constantly being bothered to elevate privileges. The end result will either be people disabling the new protection scheme or learning to click without reading–both scenarios are disastrous and will render this protection useless.

Microsoft is encouraging users to submit anonymous comments. Please do so! Not doing so means that we shouldn’t expect every problem to be fixed in the release version.

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June 7, 2006 | Filed Under Tech/Gadgets 

Comments

3 Responses to “Windows Vista Beta 2 Available for (Legal) Download”

  1. James R Burnett on June 8th, 2006 5:32 am

    Download Microsoft Windows Vista…

    Microsoft today released its new Windows Vista Beta 2 to the public. Don’t expect to be able to go to Microsoft’s website and download it. The download comes as two DVD ISO files of unknown size….

  2. マルコ式ネット白書 on June 10th, 2006 6:00 am

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  3. hoang viet hung on June 5th, 2007 8:07 pm

    Sent to me