Vista Beta 2 Publically Available.

[abudhu]

If you did not know or do not follow Vista Development Vista Beta 2 is now publically available.

You can go here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/preview.mspx

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Things to Know:
There severs are getting pretty pounded. I am downloading at 50KB a second on their dedicated servers where I usually get about 1000KB a second.

If you have VMWare it will seem like it locks up during install but it doesn't, it just takes very long. Also since VmWare lacks 3d Acceleration it does chug a little if you try to go all out on Aero.

Its BETA.

[picch]

A friend of mine who works for microsoft said not to download the 64bit version, he said it's not near as stable as the 32bit version. Also you can get up to 2 keys (each key has 10 licenses)

[dparm]

Just order the DVD for $6, it has both versions. That's what I did.

[amccabe]

has anyone been able to download?

I keep getting the "try again later" page

[nlopez]

What, no torrent? Silly Microsoft.

[amccabe]

nevermind...

I am downloading it right now

[abudhu]

Just order the DVD for $6, it has both versions. That's what I did.

Because I downloaded it for Free in 3 hours, and now I don't need to wait for it?

I am installing it via VmWare right now. Yippie. There are mirrors popping up everywhere so just try to find one via a google search.

What, no torrent? Silly Microsoft.

Torrents have too been put up. You need only search for them.

[dcv]

My DVD burner's broken, apparently (such timing), and I don't feel like paying shipping and waiting for it to come in the mail. Anybody want to do me a favor and burn me a copy? I've got my key and iso image (servers were much better today - 500 kb/s is ten times what I was getting yesterday) but nothing to burn it with.

[dcv]

Trying to install on a clean new hard drive, and I keep getting Error Code 80070017 while it's copying files. The only fixes I've seen on the net are either using a different DVD drive (which I don't have) or install from the iso using Daemon Tools (not an option - it's a clean hard drive).

So I'm thinking if I REALLY want to try Vista, I'll have to install XP first on the hard drive, copy over the iso and Daemon Tools, and do an upgrade install direct from the image.

Anybody have a less time-consuming idea?

[picch]

I'm downloading it right now. Bring a DVD to the underground Tues-Fri between 9 & 2 and I'll copy it for you

[dcv]

Thanks for the offer, but I've managed to procure a copy.

Unfortunately, I keep getting an interesting error when trying to install from disc. I'll probably end up doing an upgrade install direct from the iso image using daemon tools when I have some spare time.

[picch]

My friend that works for Microsoft has informed me that if you spend the $6 and request the DVD, once RC1 for vista is complete they will mail you a copy free of charge, and they are not offering RC1 for download

[dcv]

Troubleshooting tip - if you get error code 80070017 while the Vista DVD is copying files to the hard drive, it won't install from that disc. You can try a different drive if you have one, or try my method - mount the iso image using Daemon Tools or Alcohol 120% and do an upgrade install from a working Windows XP installation.

Since I put Vista on a spare hard drive, I had to go thru the entire process of installing XP on the drive first before doing the upgrade install, but I have it up and running. Aero is pretty slick, but I'm already getting tired of being asked permission for every little thing Windows wants to do in the Control Panel (and I'm sure it'll only get worse once I start in on drivers and programs). I'd also like to say that I HATE THE NEW START MENU - though that's mostly because of how much I'm used to the old one (you know, the one I've been using since 1995 or so).

I'm also really interested in my performance rating:

Processor 3.5
Memory 3.9
Primary Hard Disk 3.5
Graphics 2.5
Gaming Graphics 2.5

And yet, my overall rating is a 2 (despite the fact none of those numbers is smaller than 2).

Ah well. I'll play around a bit more tomorrow. It's five in the morning, I just spent the last hour getting this system up.

[picch]

To get rid of the being asked permission do the following:
Control Panel->User Accounts->Change security settings->Un-Check Use User Account Control (UAC)->OK

It might ask for a restart, just a heads up.

Here is my rating info:

Processor 3.4
Memory 4.7
Primary Hard Disk 5.1
Graphics 5.9
Gaming Graphics 4.8

Overall Rating: 3 ...

Hey dane which version of vista was installed on your system because I had read somewhere that Beta 2 will install automatically a version of vista based off your hardware specs/ratings.

I have Ultimate Edition running on my tower. I'd like to throw Vista on my laptop but I really don't want to spare 14GB for just the install. I'm wondering if I can downgrade to one of the more basic versions of Vista

[picch]

If anyone wants me to though, I'll bring my NAS Drive into the underground so you can make a copy of the iso image

[rprice1]

I've been using beta 2 as my main OS for about two weeks now and I must confess, I absolutely love the interface in vista. I'm totally a sucker as far as the whole aero interface goes. Although I like it, the start menu can easily be changed back into the classic style, as well as every interface aspect in vista, just as there was the 'windows classic' option in xp (the only reason finally decided to use xp over 2k) The only downside to vista is the lack of compatibility from before. I get some pretty bad artifacts appearing in games and some of my software won't install, oh well.

As far as the rating system goes, it doesn't make much sense. I got marks of 5+ on everything and I'm only a 4 overall, that seems really strange, hopefully its just a bug that needs to be worked out, it is a beta after all.

[abudhu]

Vista is very great. Though I too set it back to classic start menu and the such. The permission problem can be fixed, though the only reason it ask so much time is because every one of those programs needs to have escalted privileges. However, Vista went a bit overboard on that. I figure it will be smoothed out by the time the RC's and official version rolls out. Futhermore Vista won't ask for permissions so long as the driver / program is certified, which Vista is pushing heavily for.

As for the rating system, ignore it. There is a problem with it and it bases its ratings off of something silly. My Vm version got a 2 the first time around, and when I redid it (reinstalled Vista again) I ended up getting a 3 and kept a 3 the rest of the time.

*Shivers* Oh Vista is shaping up so wonderfully.

Who is going to go Vista when it launches? I might wait for the next refresh cycle, but I think I am going to be part of the few that go Vista soon. Just need to get my additional Gig and I'll be good to go.

[dcv]

I'm running Vista Ultimate, and despite my 2 rating (which, I guess, means nothing really), Aero runs just fine. I haven't really had much time to play with it yet (busy day, just getting home), but Garret thanks for the tip on permissions. Not to get all Apple-zealot-y, but when asking for permission, OS X doesn't blank my screen for a second and then grey out most of my desktop :P

I haven't tried any games yet, but plan to. Actually, thus far, the only program I've installed is Firefox (for some reason I can't connect to microsoft.com from my computer right now to get the Office 11 beta), and it seems to run without issue.

Thus far the interface is very, very nice - Aero and Glass are quite attractive, and the default fonts are great (I actually downloaded the Vista font pack a few weeks ago - Calibri, Consolas, etc. - because they looked so good). The fast searching is rather nice, but I don't think I'll ever use it (don't use Spotlight or Beagle either - I just keep my folders organized), and I'm really liking the live previews (ctrl+tab, windows key+tab, hovering over the taskbar) - it's like the tab-preview extension in Firefox, only everywhere.

I don't think I'll be jumping on the Vista bandwagon when it ships. It seems like a step up from XP on the security front, and the interface is pretty (but to me less intuitive thus far), but I dunno. I"ll wait around until I can get it thru the MSDN Academic Alliance for free ;)

[picch]

I enjoy the fact that the "eye candy" of Vista is more of a RAM hog then explorer is

[picch]

I"ll wait around until I can get it thru the MSDN Academic Alliance for free ;)

*Counts the number of machines needing Vista at home and crys*

[abudhu]

I enjoy the fact that the "eye candy" of Vista is more of a RAM hog then explorer is

Interesting though that Vista is far better at handling resources than XP. How much is Aero using under your system? Vista isn't taxing my VM very much (out of the 384MB I assigned to it, 120ish is used at boot-time).

[dcv]

Well, I just destroyed my Vista installation :(

BootMagic said refused to boot to the spare hard drive I installed Vista on (refused to see it, actually), so I thought I'd be smart and add Vista to my Windows XP boot.ini file and pick it from there - not a good idea. Trying to boot to my Vista partition like this made the partition unbootable.

I may try a repair install, but that won't fix the fact I can't mutiboot with Vista on a separate hard drive (and have no room for it on my main hard drive).

To be frank, nothing I saw in Vista was really compelling enough for me to go thru the trouble of getting it to run in MultiBoot. But hey, that's just me.

[dparm]

Vista doesn't use a BOOT.INI file, that's why you had a problem. Vista actually replaces the XP bootloader. Older versions (Longhorn), used the NT 5.x bootloader though.

[dparm]

To remove Vista, just nuke all the Vista stuff from the partition/drive, and create a new BOOT.INI file at the root of C:\

[dparm]

Dane, in response to your "system score" post --

The overall score is generated from an algorithm, it isn't averaged or anything like that. I have no clue what that algorithm is. My XPS 400 scores an 8 overall -- I probably should score even higher since all my specs are well above the requirements.

That whole component though should be nice; it will allow Vista to tweak your OS experience to best suit your machine. Other programs will be able to use it to automatically configure their settings, such as 3D games.

[dcv]

Yeah, I found out that Vista doesn't use boot.ini the hard way. I can still access the drive from my main XP installation, and if you read the boot.ini file that Vista installs, it actually says the boot.ini file only exists for booting older versions of Windows - I probably should've checked that first. Stupid me.

It was on a spare hard drive, so I'll just format it if I can't repair it.

Dan, how'd you score an 8? I thought it was on a scale of 5. Ah well - even with my score of two (which was a bit of a geeky ego shot - when I ran the tool in XP, it gave me a 3 :(), it still installed Ultimate Edition and Aero.

[dparm]

Okay, you caught me.....I cheated like this guy did (not my screenshot):

http://rilex.unroutable.net/ars/PRT.jpg



I actually scored a 4. MS limits the tool to 5, but the value can technically be 0-9. This leads me to believe that they may expand that rating system as computers get more powerful in the coming years.

[picch]

Vista won't run the installer for Alcohol 120% *cries*

[Unregistered]

Would anyone be able to run a quick step by step of installing vista beta 2 using daemon tools? I tried once but everytime it booted up afterwards it went to a blue screen of death.. Though safe mode worked fine..

So I formatted and reinstalled xp all fresh now I want to try again. Thanks for the help!! :)