Free copy of Windows 7 for IT Pros or Developers

[brad jones]

Microsoft is doing a number of events between September 24th and November 11th across the USA. If you attend the events, they say you will get a copy of Windows 7. The events are to be broken into tracks for IT Pros and developers. The cities are:

• Atlanta - Sep. 28
• Baltimore - Nov. 9
• Boston - Oct. 5
• Chicago - Oct. 20
• Cleveland - Oct. 12
• Dallas - Nov. 4
• Denver - Sep. 24

• Detroit - Oct. 7
• Houston - Nov. 9
• Kansas City - Nov. 4
• Los Angeles - Oct. 28
• Miami - Sep. 24
• Minneapolis - Sep. 24
• New York City - Oct. 20

• Orange County - Oct. 26
• Philadelphia - Sep. 28
• Phoenix - Sep. 28
• Pittsburgh - Sep. 30
• Portland - Oct. 14
• San Diego - Oct. 26
• San Francisco - Oct. 20

• San Jose - Oct. 5
• Seattle - Oct. 12
• St. Louis - Nov. 9
• Washington - Nov. 4

You can find more informaiton at Microsoft's "The New Efficiency" site. Word is that the IT Pro tracks are filling (or filled), but at the time of this post I was told there is still space in the developer tracks.

Of course, I'm from Indianapolis, which is not on the list. We are working on an event in Indianapolis for October 8th. Stay tuned for more information on what the Indianapolis event will be!



More...

[RobDog888]

Yes, I registered last week! :woot:
Its Windows 7 Professional version.

[chris128]

Shame I dont live in the USA

[CimSlunt]

i have windows7 but its only BETA, now my comp turns itself off after every 2 hours lol.

[JuggaloBrotha]

Yes, I registered last week! :woot:
Its Windows 7 Professional version.

It's probably 32bit too, went to an event in Grand Rapids, MI a couple years ago and they gave out Vista Business 32bit and VS 2008 Standard.

[gep13]

i have windows7 but its only BETA, now my comp turns itself off after every 2 hours lol.

Hey,

If you get yourself the release candidate, that shouldn't happen anymore, at least it kicks in next year.

Gary

[CimSlunt]

Hey,

If you get yourself the release candidate, that shouldn't happen anymore, at least it kicks in next year.

Gary

You mean there is a way to stop it? that i can do now? im debating to downgrade to vista ultimate but im liking 7 atm.

Its a pain in the ass especially when wrking on long projects, i have to log when i turn comp on then set an alarm to go off after 1hour 50mins so i can save all work before shut down lol.

[chris128]

Yeah simply download the Release Candidate (which is basically the next version after the BETA) and install that. I dont know if you can do an in place upgrade from the BETA (I doubt it) so you might have to back your stuff up and wipe it and install the RC.

[CimSlunt]

Great i dont have a HDD and i am n00b at backing things up, i normally just clean install and download again lol

[gep13]

Great i dont have a HDD and i am n00b at backing things up, i normally just clean install and download again lol

Hey,

In all fairness, you shouldn't have a BETA or a Release Candidate on a machine that has stuff on it that you want to keep. You should be prepared to lose the stuff on it, simply because you have to upgrade at some point.

Gary

[chris128]

Plus - its a BETA for a reason, it might have some major bug in it that corrupts all of your data.

[CimSlunt]

Its only programmes such as VB, PS and stuff like that. nothing major.

[gep13]

In which case, if you can, get the RC and re-install. The two hour shut off will stop for the time being, and then start up again next June (I think), when you will be prompted to purchase a full version.

Gary

[RobDog888]

I dont think hte RC is available for download anymore.

You should be installing to a VM if its your only system.

[chris128]

You should be installing to a VM if its your only system.

I agree but if you want to actually really use it as you would normally use an OS then a VM is not much use in my opinion. I've had the BETA installed on a virtual PC image for months and I've used it about 10 times max because its not very quick (even though I have assigned it 3 GB of RAM in VPC) and its just a pain having to boot up one OS only to use another guest OS and have files still stored on the primary one (for the reasons described earlier).

[Jenner]

I'm registered to go. If anyone in the Cleveland OH area is also registering to go to that one, give me a PM and we'll hook up.

That Sensors and Locations platform has me drooling. I'd love to be able to just wire up a few singular sensors to USB interfaces, write a simple driver and have Windows pick it up and automatically generate API objects so I can use it in .NET programs. Would REALLY be beneficial to my work in the manufacturing sector. Right now, the only sensor platforms that take advantage of .NET are things by companies like National Instruments and are so overkill for our needs (24 analog sensor inputs, 96 digital I/Os... expensive when you just want to wire up a single proximity sensor for your application!) that this might be a worthy alternative!

[gep13]

I agree but if you want to actually really use it as you would normally use an OS then a VM is not much use in my opinion. I've had the BETA installed on a virtual PC image for months and I've used it about 10 times max because its not very quick (even though I have assigned it 3 GB of RAM in VPC) and its just a pain having to boot up one OS only to use another guest OS and have files still stored on the primary one (for the reasons described earlier).

At the minute, I have the RC installed as my main OS, and so far I have been really impressed. Like you, I thought about installing it on a VM, but wanted to really exercise it, so opted for the main OS. Using that, along with the BETA of Visual Studio 2010, and I have to say that I am loving both!!

Gary

[Nightwalker83]

Shame I dont live in the USA

It's a shame that we can't move to the US for a month or two then come home.

[Max Peck]

No problem registering for the Miami event. Thanks for the heads-up.

-Max

[Jenner]

I just got back from this event. I'll admit, it was pretty cool. They showed some slick things you can do taskbar integration and such.

Anyways, the promo copy of Windows 7 they handed out is only the 32-bit version, which in this modern world where it's almost impossible to buy computers with anything less than 4gig of RAM installed, is next to worthless. Has anyone tried or does anyone know if there's a way to get the 64-bit media and/or key (I don't know if the keying is different between 32/64 bit versions)?

I'm going to pursue an answer myself, but I was wondering if anyone's already gone through this yet and save me some trouble.

Thanks

[chris128]

lol I wouldnt say a 32 bit OS is worthless... specially as 7 is supposed to be a bit faster than Vista anyway so you shouldnt need a couple of gig of memory just to keep the OS running happily

[dilettante]

I wouldn't sweat the 32-bitness much.

Running a 64-bit OS you need 4GB to approximate a 32-bit 2GB system. It also effectively cuts your cache in half. You can run into device driver and BIOS issues. Microsoft themselves gives many reasons like this to explain why VS is not offered in 64-bit.

There is still no compelling reason to use a desktop in 64-bit mode. Exceptions exist where large RAM is required, etc. but these are still rare. I run Vista32 on my desktop, and Vista64 on a laptop (because that's what came with it). The desktop runs rings around the laptop, though there are numerous other factors at work here.

[Jenner]

See, I was planning on installing this on a shiny new Intel i7 based machine with 6gig of RAM... so, I kinda need it. It's three sticks of 2gig RAM; triple-channel, so I would say any 32bit OS is effectively obsolete right out of the box in this day-and-age.

[chris128]

You cant complain when you got it for free :P

[Jenner]

I understand that, but it's kinda a sucker-punch to the gut. It's like "Here's the keys to your new Ferrari... bit it only has a Volkswagon beetle's engine... what... didn't we tell you?"

[dilettante]

Well gosh, I guess you'll be forking over $320 then.

[gep13]

I have mine on pre-order from Amazon. When I first ordered it, it was £220, now it is down to £159.98. Bargain!! Can't wait to get it delivered.

Gary

[RobDog888]

Whats the phrase... "beggers cant be choosers"

[Jenner]

All I asked is if anyone else who had gone to this had a similar issue and had done anything about it. If so, what did they do, and who did they talk to?

And if ya think beggars can't be choosers, then you haven't ever been or really known a begger. They get to be choosers far more often than you may think.

From my own hunting, it sounds like all I need is the x64 media and a quick call to their licensing center. The promo disks use VLK keying, not retail keying.

[dilettante]

I have mine on pre-order from Amazon. When I first ordered it, it was £220, now it is down to £159.98. Bargain!! Can't wait to get it delivered.

Gary

Upgrade price? Full at Amazon US is $320 (about £203 I think).

[gep13]

Upgrade price? Full at Amazon US is $320 (about £203 I think).

Nope, Full Edition:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-Wi...5379224&sr=8-2

Gary

[Jenner]

My bad, got an official answer from Microsoft. If you got one of the 32bit Promo disks, it uses retail keying and the same key will work for either 32 or 64 bit editions. The 64 bit DVD ISO image can be downloaded off MSDN TechNet to subscribers, or after the official launch on the 22nd, on a media disk for about $10.

[RobDog888]

2 more weeks until our win 7 event

[Jenner]

Enjoy it, it's pretty cool, I especially liked how you can add jumplists and progress bar functionality to your windows taskbar icon. The API they use can be found HERE.

After a little hunting, if you want a sensor testboard like they use in the Sensor API demonstration, you can order one directly from Freescale HERE.

Downloaded the 64bit iso of Windows 7 Ultimate from Techweb last night and installed it with the key I got from the event. It was a flawless install which blew me away; 25 minutes and it was done. Only driver I needed to download was for my Sound blaster X-Fi.

[Nightwalker83]

I just received an email from internet.com to download the Get Ready For Windows 7 ebook. Below is the email:

Get Ready for Windows 7

The latest operating system from Microsoft will be available soon and organizations of all sizes will need to consider whether or not to upgrade.

Download this Internet.com eBook Get Ready for Windows 7, for a review of Windows 7 and to see what Internet.com experts think of the new and improved features.

Topics explored include:

Windows 7 review: why I like it
Top 3 most important new features of Windows 7
The IT pro feature watch list
Migration to Windows 7: should I stay or should I go?
Security: good, bad or ugly?