It was announced at Microsoft’s CES 09 keynote, two days ago, that the official Windows 7 beta will available on Friday the 9th of January. 2.5 million keys are supposed to be up for grabs but demand has hit Microsoft’s systems responsible for handling the distribution.
Having waited for the Windows 7 site to change and for links to the beta download page to circulate around the news sites and message boards, I managed to start the download which stalled and wouldn’t resume. Posters on various forums are seeing the same thing. Having gone back to the TechNet beta download page, only the notice “Windows® 7 Beta coming soon!” remains.
Even before this problem, the link to obtain the download and key were giving Server Busy messages so it hasn’t been plain sailing. I don’t recall these problems with the Vista beta. Either demand is higher or resources at Microsoft have been hit by the ‘credit crunch.’ No doubt, the download will be back online soon enough.