Go get it - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-download.aspx

• You'll need some technical skills, like knowing how to:

  • Burn an ISO file to make an install DVD (A good example of what we mean by “technical”)

  • Install Windows (of course)

  • Backup and restore your PC (There's a chance of losing files, so it's a good idea to do a backup of anything you want to save.)

  • Set up a network

  It can be glitchy—so don't use a PC you need every day.

• Minimum recommended specs call for:

  • 1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor

  • 1 GB of system memory

  • 16 GB of available disk space

  • Support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128 MB memory (to enable the Aero theme)

  • DVD-R/W Drive

  • Internet access (to download the Beta and get updates)

  And yes, like anything tech-related, these specs could change.

• Some product features of Windows 7, such as the ability to watch and record live TV or navigation through the use of "touch," may require advanced or additional hardware.

• You'll need a system recovery disk (and know how to use it).

• You're [almost] flying solo: you'll need to troubleshoot problems yourself and call on other Beta testers for their know-how.

• It's a two-way thing—Beta testing is about feedback so our developers can fix bugs and hear what appeals to the people who use our products daily. Please tell us what you think.

• Watch the calendar. The Beta expires on August 1, 2009. To continue using your PC, please be prepared to reinstall a prior version of Windows or a subsequent release of Windows 7 before the expiration date. (See installation instructions.)

A new poster from Hugh MacLeod - I like it a lot and plan to paste it around the building as liberally as I can and to see what Mr Ballmer thinks of it :)

Hugh gives a few explanations for which are:

• Microsoft telling its potential customers to change the world or go home.
• Microsoft telling its employees to change the world or go home.
• Microsoft employees telling their colleagues to change the world or go home.
• Everybody else telling Microsoft to change the world or go home.
• Everyone else telling their colleagues to change the world or go home.
• And so forth.

 and then paraphrases with

Basically, Microsoft is in the world-changing business. If they ever lose that, they might as well all go home

That's what I say to people a lot when they said what is my job? I work for a company the changes the world. Maybe I drank too much from the firehose but I do believe it. I spent a day with Microsoft Research last week and that continued to make prove the point to me. I know not everyone will agree that we change the world for good (I'm expecting a tonne of flak on this post) but when you see some of the projects and causes that software touches you can't help but feel humble about it. I'm hoping to help our UK citizenship team get a blog up and running soon to show you some more of this.

[the shelf above my “cube” at home sporting an original]

Hugh is on a riff and roll at the moment with Cube Grenades – something his audience has been doing with his stuff for years but he’s only just noticed. Often the way.

I’m lucky enough to have a number of Hugh originals both in the standard business card format but also a couple of his new full scale prints and the Blue Monster is a true original of the species – I know it graces many cubicles in Redmond and recently heard it was in the office of someone pretty senior. I’ll be sending them one of the last signed original lithos I have.

Do you have Blue Monster grenade? If so, post it up and lets be seein’ it…

I like the notion of cube grenades. They’re provocative images or messages that make people stop, ask questions and challenge. Same with card grenades

This has bugged me for a while on Windows 7 and though Tim posted the answer a while ago in his bumper list of Windows 7 tips, I missed it until the Liveside guys pointed me to it.

Basically, Windows Live Messenger get a little freaked out by jump lists in Windows 7 so you end up with two Messenger icons. For me, the old icon in the system tray is better til they fix that and Tim found a simple way to make this happen.

 
….close Windows Live Messenger, edit the shortcut properties and set the application to run in Windows Vista compatibility mode. Bingo!

Nice :)

Nice tip from Josh on doing a bit of war driving with Vista. Go to a command prompt, type netsh and then

wlan show networks mode=bssid

The geek in me likes that :)

Link to The In-Between : Windows Vista (security) tip: poor man's NetStumbler