Windows Vista Beta 2 available now

Filed under: OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft, Commercial

Windows Vista Beta 2 available now

by Jordan Running Jun 8th 2006

Today Microsoft publicly released the second beta version of Windows Vista, the first major update to its Windows product line since Windows XP. Microsoft's servers are getting hammered right now, but if you're lucky you can download the release from the Windows Vista site. You'll need a Passport account, and the download is a 3-4GB ISO, meaning you'll need a DVD burner to make an install disc. In leiu of that, you can fork over $10 to Microsoft and they'll ship you a disc in a speedy two-to-four weeks. By now I'm sure you've decided for yourself whether Vista is worth checking out or not, so I leave it to you to click or not click.

(P.S. We have Win98, WinME, WinCE, and WinXP... what will we call Windows Vista?)

[Thanks, Dan!]

Tags: beta, beta2, download, microsoft, vista, windows, windowsvista

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Fabian said 4:42PM on 6-08-2006

(P.S. We have Win98, WinME, WinCE, and WinXP... what will we call Windows Vista?)

How about WiVi? It's the shortest thing that makes sense and also a nice Final Fantasy reference if someone remembers the cute little blackmage by that name (at least it sounds the same, he may be spelled differently).

Apart from that: The Beta is there THEORETICALLY. I've been trying to download all day. It always says that there is too much interest right now yadayadayada...

Clint said 4:53PM on 6-08-2006

How about WinVI, or in other words, Win6. After all, it is technically Windows 6.0 isn't it?

Anthony said 4:59PM on 6-08-2006

Deffinetley WinVI. It has two meanings. Obviously VI = Vista and VI = 6, meaning the sixth OS... WinME doesn't count ;)

james said 5:00PM on 6-08-2006

Maybe WinV? That is half of OSX, which is about right.

Just kidding.

DJ said 5:32PM on 6-08-2006

I think people will just call it Vista, and leave the win part out.

Afterall, it is much different than previous versions of windows (because the majority of them are all built off the same platform.)

Neo-Fight.tv said 5:42PM on 6-08-2006

How about Wiindows Viista... seems to be popular these days... :-)

DJ said 5:47PM on 6-08-2006

Windows 3.0, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows XP, Windows CE, Windows Mobile... the list goes on. Therefore this is not the sixth version. Not counting servers, it's AT LEAST the seventh.

Jordan Running said 6:05PM on 6-08-2006

FYI, DJ, Vista is known internally as Windows NT 6.0 (Windows 2000 was NT 4.0, XP was NT 5.1).

Pete M said 8:03PM on 6-08-2006

er, not quite Jordon - NT 4.0 was NT 4.0, Windows 2000 was NT 5.0, Windows XP was 5.1, Server 2003 was 5.2(as is XP 64-bit) and Vista will be 6.0

see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT

Jordan Running said 8:12PM on 6-08-2006

Right you are, Peter. Serves me right for not checking Wikipedia first.

Andrew Ferguson said 8:42PM on 6-08-2006

I'd vote for WinV. Also, it was only going to cost me $6 to get the disc. I opted to download because I really just couldn't wait.

Philip said 12:32AM on 6-09-2006

bout time ill be calling it win vis bc it keeps as much of the name as possible

Kash said 1:32AM on 6-09-2006

Windows V for Vendetta

Dave said 2:21AM on 6-09-2006

Its $10.xx shipped, $6 for the disc, $4.xx for shipping.
Also this build has some big issues with MediaCenter refusing to work for many people. (Black Screen, maybe DXVA related)
Incase you wonder how much space you will need, this puppy weighs in at 15GB installed! Atleast we can all have a buggy version of Vista Ultimate Edition for a year (timeout is this time 2007)
Microsoft's first consumer os that wont fit on a used xbox hdd!

ripco said 11:05AM on 6-09-2006

"fit on a used xbox hdd!"
OMG thats too funny, them little 8 and 10 gigs work pretty good for cheap system drives!

Alex Land said 3:40PM on 6-09-2006

I installed a few days ago. Vista's pretty rad. Once iTunes and AIM start working (iTunes takes vista out of the aero glass interface and AIM won't install period) I'm going to be using it instead of XP.

~J~ said 3:47PM on 6-09-2006

Nice OS, once the little bugs have been ironed out (which of course it IS Beta) then I think MS have a rock-steady OS on their hands.

Just gotta wait for the anti-MS people to come along and kick the thread to bits now.

Chris Brainard said 2:43AM on 6-11-2006

The only thing I had problems with was my sound drivers. I just installed my old XP ones and they worked. I also found that turning off the security that blocks programs from having admin access if you have an admin account speeds up the system by 50%.

Explorer (the file manager) seems to chow up all disk access at times with installs. This may have something to do with the indexing service running while new files are being installed.

Setting Firefox to the default browser was a pain in the ass, but I finally figured out that even if I set the system to use Firefox I still had to turn off IE checking that it is the default browser otherwise it resets it.

All documents and settings have been moved to a new folder c:users
In your profile you will find 2 folders for applications. Local and Roaming. You want the roaming folder. For example if you use Firefox all the prefs and profile info needs to be in roaming or if you installed it already you will find it there.

Neal Saferstein said 11:06PM on 6-12-2006

This is like the #1 download in history. I guess here comes the microsoft offensive!

Neal Saferstein

DeepKeeper said 3:07PM on 6-15-2006

It takes about 8 seconds to boot aginst 3.5 for XP... I'm a bit disappointed.

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