Windows 7 "Pre-Beta" Build 7004

By Doug Holland (Intel) (245 posts) on December 19, 2008 at 9:25 pm

Scott Wylie, Microsoft's New Zealand Director of Development and Platform Strategy, wrote today on his blog about his experience installing a pre-beta build of Windows 7 on his home laptop.

It is interesting to note that the pre-beta build of Windows 7 installed on his home laptop seems to be build 7004, which if the term "pre-beta" is accurate would indicate that Windows 7 beta one will be some build number higher than 7004. On the blogosphere the general consensus has been that beta one would be build 7000.0.081212-1400 which the following screen shot from Scott's laptop could indicate is inaccurate.

According to Windows 7 News the build shown above is 7004.0.081203-1830 which would indicate that this build was created on December 3rd at 18:30, this build could be from the Release Candidate (RC) branch. We therefore could still see build 7000.0.081212-1400 as the beta which would have been built on December 12th at 14:00.

As I quoted James O'Neill (Microsoft) saying earlier today, “Those who know aren’t talking and those who talk don’t know” .

Earlier today the Windows 7 homepage included a link to download the Windows 7 beta although the link unfortunately didn't work and has since been removed. I still believe we'll have to wait until after Steve Ballmer's CES keynote before we'll be able to download the beta.

Categories: Software Engineering

Comments (30)

December 20, 2008 12:59 AM PST


lacool		 wellcome!
December 20, 2008 4:37 AM PST


SC		 Had a play with last leaked copy, will give the beta a go when it comes out, looks pretty good so far apart from no classic start menu...

All it needs now is a big dock floating mid-desktop annnnnd it's a mac!
December 20, 2008 5:30 AM PST


dsljay		 It is kind of weird to see that the 7004.0.081203-1830 buld created on Dec 3, 2008 but build 7000.0.081212-1400 was created on Dec 12, 2008. I wonder why an older build was created after a updated build. Makes you wonder if 081203-1830 and 081212-1400 are really date and time stamps.
December 20, 2008 6:17 AM PST


Rufus		 Classic taskbar can be emulated by choosing 'small icons' and 'never group' in taskbar properties.
December 20, 2008 6:35 AM PST


董泽榛		 很期待哈！！
December 20, 2008 8:29 AM PST


TUMIK		 ну когда же уже ее спиздят у мягких ?
December 20, 2008 9:28 AM PST


hooba		 Да никогда =) 7004 вряд ли утечет. А вот 7000 можно уже ждать на днях
December 20, 2008 10:31 AM PST


rahul		 It may be possible that the 7000 build was created only for the public release while they are much ahead then the 7000 build so internal build shows as 7004 which was created before the 7000 build
December 20, 2008 10:44 AM PST

Doug Holland (Intel)
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 Hey Rahul,

I would have guessed that myself only that Scott refers to this build as "pre-beta" so I'm a little confused there...

- Doug
December 20, 2008 1:05 PM PST


regs		 7004 is >Post
December 20, 2008 1:05 PM PST


regs		 7004 is _post_ beta i suspect, as beta is 7000;)
December 20, 2008 3:05 PM PST


yarving		 where can I donwload?
December 20, 2008 6:25 PM PST

Doug Holland (Intel)
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 Currently you cannot download the beta unless you are a Microsoft employee... I would also guess you'll only be able to download it before the CES keynote speech if you are on the private beta test or, as I said earlier, a Microsoft employee.
December 20, 2008 11:45 PM PST

Doug Holland (Intel)
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 It looks now like Scott Wylie has removed the original post from his blog. I wonder if he mistakenly posted the screen shot of build 7004 or if this was Microsoft trying to intensify the interest in the beta before Steve Ballmer takes the stage at CES.

Tis the season of good will and so I just hope Scott didn't get into too much trouble for the posting...
December 21, 2008 1:56 PM PST


Ron		 is windows 7 build 7004 al te downloaden?
December 21, 2008 2:45 PM PST

Doug Holland (Intel)
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 Hey Ron,

Not yet...

- Doug
December 21, 2008 2:51 PM PST


Rob		 Internally some FTEs have build 7015 already. As for Build 7009, the gadgets didn't work properly. Build 7004 was even faster than the leaked 6956, but this was different with 7009 again.
December 21, 2008 3:24 PM PST

Doug Holland (Intel)
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 Hey Rob,

Thanks for providing the insight into what FTE's are using internally. If 7009 was faster than 6956 that would be awesome because the recent 69xx builds are truly awesome in terms of performance.

- Doug
December 21, 2008 5:37 PM PST


EdwardOCallaghan		 Wow ! That looks *sooo* much like KDE4 !
Would be neat if Microsoft considered supporting ZFS as a new file system for Win7.
Regards,
December 21, 2008 5:58 PM PST

Doug Holland (Intel)
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 Hey Edward,

I can see some simularities with the KDE 4.2 desktop and I used to use the KDE desktop on a Sun Workstation not that long ago. Why do I use Windows as my primary OS today?

Because Microsoft's developer tools and the available applications for that OS are superior to those of other operating systems.

I do still have Sun Solaris within a virtual machine and I use that when I'm writing Java code and for some C++ although that is rare these days.

- Doug
December 21, 2008 8:02 PM PST


JDik		 Alguien sabe donde esta el Torrent ??????????????????????
December 21, 2008 10:03 PM PST

Doug Holland (Intel)
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 I don't believe you'll have to result to torrent downloads as the beta build will most likely be publically available. Builds on torrent can have questionable security and Microsoft may choose not to provide security updates to such builds. Recent IE secuity patches, for example, are not available to those running build 6956 from torrent sites.
December 25, 2008 5:16 AM PST


胡湛霏		 这个就是windows 7的BETA1么 7004啊 真的很期待
December 30, 2008 10:47 AM PST


Clayton		 When you say that the Beta will most likely be publicly available does that mean to the invited Beta testers or to the general public? If it is available to the general public where would it be available?
December 30, 2008 11:28 AM PST

Doug Holland (Intel)
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 Hey Clayton,

Microsoft has publically stated that the beta will be available to the public in early 2008 and I believe they have gone so far as to indicate it will be available in January 2008 (according to several MSDN blogs). Access to the Microsoft Connect site that beta testers will use to post bugs and suggestions will likely remain restricted unfortunately. Hopefully Microsoft will allow the public to post bugs and suggestions on Microsoft Connect for Windows 7 although I suspect that will not happen.

Regards,

Doug
January 2, 2009 9:19 PM PST


William		 I think you mean January 2009, not 2008.
January 3, 2009 7:33 AM PST

Doug Holland (Intel)
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 Hey William,

You're right ... 2009 and not 2008 :)

- Doug
January 6, 2009 3:27 PM PST


Lee Mcknight		 Why Does MS Not Make A Enhanced Version Of Windows XP Up To Date With Extra Drivers And Programs Like They Are Doing With Windows 7? I Like Windows XP As It Has A Cleaner User Friendly GUI And I Know To Much About It To Figure Out Windows Vista And Looks Like Windows 7 Will Be The Same. They Could Call It Windows XPE For Windows XP Enhanced. They Could Run It On MinWin Or WinFS.
They Could Even Come Out With A Free Version And That Would Stop Piracy.
Is There A Place To Send Feedback To MS Telling Them About It. Maybe If Everybody Does That They Might Code A XPE And It Would Come Out Sooner As It Did For Windows XP. Thank You And Have A Great Day.
January 13, 2009 1:44 PM PST


slim		 i want download win7!!!!
January 14, 2009 8:56 PM PST

Doug Holland (Intel)
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 Hey "slim"

Head over to the following site and you can download the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows 7 build 7000. You might also consider using Windows Server 2008 R2 also.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/default.aspx

Regards,

Doug

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