Vista is beautiful!!! The best OS from Microsoft since a while now. My sound now works in Vista perfectly(Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2). It runs a whole lot faster, has more to do and more secure than XP. Definitely buying Vista :) I've had a friend who owns a Macintosh take look at Vista and they've agreed that Microsoft has done it's job. It has Mac like features and more. Now it's just up to the persons preference on which one they want. If Vista is great now, it has to be phenomenal by the final release.

evry thing is workin easy and smoothly

64-bit version download is useless. It only downloads 13.7 MB.

This is the whole idea of BETA its not going to work perfectly on everyones system...the point is to tell microsoft everything that is going wrong...if its a drivers issue you cannot fault microsoft...its up to the vendor to provide this...lots of people are not having problems...and it was already stated in the article it is just not feasible to fix a DEAD OS its not cost effective who can blame them...Windows 98 does not support new technology why continue to fix a product that is obsolete? no one else does... what "bugs" are you experiencing?

Vista Beta 2 runs great and smooth on my 512 MB RAM machine. Everything working fine.
Hey, stupid MS haters.. go back to Linux and shut up!

Hey HUGH750, ITS A BETA!!! that means not a finished product, Terminalx is 100% correct, why knock it if its not finished yet? Thats why Microsoft is allowing the public to download it, to help find and fix the problems of the beta and make a better less problematic operating system. Geesh!

I tried vista again but with with a different video card ( An ati radeon 9600se) and it runs fine.
i appologize for my previous ranting about vista.
And i do know that it is a beta version.

Windows Vista is more like an Alpha. It has bugs that its impossible to conceptualize Microsoft not knowing about. So it's not just their wanting your help in finding bugs.

And speaking of Microsoft and how bad they are, what about 20 million folks 6 year old systems that are now being abandoned, with no more patches for Win98b or WinME, even though they knew of vulnerabilities in April.

people that don't understand the concept of "beta" have no business installing this...I have had ZERO lockups except for accidently installing well forcing windows to install audio drivers that were wrong..it runs very smooth on my pc and its at least 3 years old...

Downloading windows vista beta 2 is a wast of time, there are lots of lockups and if you have a creative sound blaster audigy ls the vista drivers at creative's web site don't work you just get an error message saying that it doesn't detect it, in other words don't download windows vista beta 2!

Downloaded the Beta last night and got it installed today. Installation took a bit longer than I expected, but that wasn't a problem for me. After installing and playing around with the settings and installing a few programs, I was very impressed by the layout of the OS. It has a bit of a learning curve to it. I found myself looking around a bit to figure out some of the things that I am very familiar to with XP Pro. Aero is a nice touch, but is very CPU and RAM intensive, although I found the sidebar useless. With a gig of RAM I am finding myself thinking that I am going to need to upgrade before the final release. All in all I have to say that Microsoft is on the right track, but it still needs some minor tweaking here and there.

skandris I am running 1.5 gig of memory and I noticed the same thing I turned off the sidebar and the windows search and increased the page file to the max allow and it really boosted performance...I would say though at least a gig of ram is necessary to run vista you could on 512 but have to cut some things down

Finally got it downloaded after downloading a bad copy...it seems if during install you get an error 80070241- you can try all the steps that are suggested (burn at a lower speed, mount the drive, copy files to a different location) but the only one that worked for me was redownloading it...

Oh how I wish there was a killfile feature for a few specific BetaNews readers' comments...

:) I just like to see people really give companies a fair shake. Regardless of how good or bad their past software was.

Aren't you the one who really liked Microsoft Bob ?

well, nice idea with the download link, except it's not working: it just sends me back to the MS site which is still flooded.......

Try the mirror here.

...

The PC Rat ain't the anti-Microsoft Taliban.
But neither a sniveling Microsoft sycophant
like PC_Tool !

Facts are: We ~shouldn't~ be scrambling to
D/L a crappy WinVista beta. Windows Vista
SHOULD have come out ...full version and final
release... years ago !

Look at the Mac OS. Apple is virtually ~DEAD~
(as a desktop system) and they release a new
OS twice a week !

Microsoft being a HAPLESS GIANT unable to
meet the lowest standards in a timely fashion.

...

The Computer Rodent

...

Wow...

Useless ranting *and* an insult. I'm impressed.

And you think I'm an MS fanboy?

lmao...

[tweety]
He don't know me wewy weww, do he?
[/tweety]

I struggled to find a mirror to down load Windows Vista (Microsoft's site wasn't and on June 9 still isn'taccepting connections), and 3 hours later at 306KB/s over ATT dsl from the download here, I had a DVD image of Vista beta 2. Worthless piece of SH*T.
It never presented me the option to add a partition so I could dual boot with XP, but booted up as if it could dual boot, which it couldn't. Then it told me it boots up too slow cause it doesn't like its' Windows supplied Driver for my NVidia video card. It definitely shuts down way too slowly. It couldn't find any Drivers for a standard SoundBlaster Audigy card. Then it told me I had 3.25 Gig of Ram, when I have 4 Gig of Ram.
Luckily I had GHOSTed my XP before starting, so I restored it, undoing the Vista damage.
I haven't seen anything so poorly done since the OS2 2.0 Install.
I had less grief the first time I ever installed a Linux distribution.

It is a "beta" so it is not done and you should realize that means it will have problems. Don't install a beta and expect it to work right or that there will be drivers for every piece of hardware out there. Not all manufacturers have drivers ready for Vista and the ones that do are probably still testing them and labelling them as "beta" as well and we learned above that "beta" means problems. Unless you are trying to test this and report bugs, there isn't much of a reason for you to download this "beta" product.

Also where does it ever say you can repartition your drive and dual boot without reinstalling XP? I never saw that, and the only time I've seen something mentioned similar from Microsoft is where they say you need a third party piece of software to repartition an existing drive setup without losing your XP, such as Partition Magic.

Did you play with the advanced drive options in the installer?

Grab the Beta 2 drivers from NVIDIA. As for the ram, were you coming from the 64 bit version of XP? As for dual booting I haven't gotten it either but is the average Vista user going to dual boot?

Alphas are not done. Betas are supposed to be almost done except for a small list of known bugs, and is out for end users to identify less obvious bugs. Vista does not fit ANY commonly used definition of beta. It has myriad bugs that it's impossible to imagine Micrsoft didn't know about. The current "beta 2" of Vista fits commonly accepted definition of a late Alpha - "Shows functionality but may have serious flaws".

I'm not gonna bother with this BS until a torrent is available. Every damned one of these mirrors leads to a frigging ACCESS DENIED page. So why bother even posting such USELESS garbage here, at 9down or any other place except on Micro$oft's website...

I too tried to download it two days ago (i tried about 4 or 5 times) and i kept getting dropped, I even tried to download it using the download manager microsoft recommended and still got dropped!

It's wired that how most of you have problem d/ling it. Just use a d/l manager, it works for me. I use flashget with unlimited retries on, and connects very 30sec. begin the download at midnight, and it was completed in the morning.

pmccrackan I would use Microsofts site for downloading. Thanks to my craptacular dl manager fubaring things I downloaded Vista 3 times today (12gb). I did however use free download manager. I set my file size segments to 100mb and only did 1-2, and was pulling 790k avg from msft. So head over to their place and try your luck.

archammer, thanks for the advice, but every time I try to download from the links in my ms vista email, I get this...
Thank you for your interest in Windows Vista Beta 2.
We are currently experiencing a high level of demand and cannot process your request at this time.
Please check back later for availability. We apologize for any inconvenience.
This has been going on since about this time yesterday, pretty frustrating! I also am a free download manager user, it's a great utility. I guess I just have to be patient.
Cheers

Well idiot me formatted the image after burning it. If i can grab it again Ill post, so anyone continuing to have problems can grab it from me.

Just curious if anyone else has run into the following: I'm running a GA-8I945PG motherboard. It has an ALC882 (Realtek HD audio), but the new Realtek drivers install but no input or output devices will detect? I used the default Vista driver and only my headphones jack would work. Also ATI get a dang audio driver out please! My laptop runs fine! (7510gx w/ 2gb ram) but NO AUDIO!

Why am I getting access denied message whenever I try to start my download from the fileforum? I want to download the 64 bit Vista, but I get this message every time I try. I get the same message if I try the 32 bit version as well. I can download other things, it only seems to happen with the vista downloads.
Thanks for any assistance.

OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name BERNIE-CA6F76C3
System Manufacturer Dell Computer Corporation
System Model Dimension 4600i
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 1 GenuineIntel ~2793 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Dell Computer Corporation A12, 8/26/2004
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)"
User Name BERNIE-CA6F76C3\Bernie
Time Zone Eastern Daylight Time
Total Physical Memory 1,024.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 627.80 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 2.41 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

Well they don't have to download it now, do they?

But they probably will, just to find things in it they can complain about. The squeakiest gear gets the grease.

Downloaded Vista beta 2, tried to upgrade on xp, and also did a clean install, got Blue screens of death both times during installs Fatal System error c000021a! hmmmmm

what is your system specs?

I keep getting a visual runtime error when I try to install and then it kicks me out.... Can anyone help? fixed that problem but now when installing it gets hung up 21% when expanding files says it has an error on booting and when I hit ok it stops the installation

OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name BERNIE-CA6F76C3
System Manufacturer Dell Computer Corporation
System Model Dimension 4600i
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 1 GenuineIntel ~2793 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Dell Computer Corporation A12, 8/26/2004
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)"
User Name BERNIE-CA6F76C3\Bernie
Time Zone Eastern Daylight Time
Total Physical Memory 1,024.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 627.80 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 2.41 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

And even though i aint got a graphics card in yet, the advisor says it Vista ready, funny thing is i put in 5384, last week computer worked fine, i downloaded the public beta yesterday, and it crashed it twice

At what point turning the setup(both upgrade and clean) does it crash? What type of hard drives are you using and what is the size of them.

Just for grins, grabbing it off of the windowsvista servers via the fileforum.

+390K/sec.

Looks like everything is fine. Still can't access the download through the MS download site, but....

What build is it? I want to download it..

5365 is that the latest?

Beta 2 is build 5384

Website of the day:

http://www.filemirrors.com/

The beta is only theoretically available. Microsoft has not provided sufficient bandwidth. Try to download it Thursday and be presented with:

Thank you for your interest in Windows Vista Beta 2.

We are currently experiencing a high level of demand and cannot process your request at this time.

Please check back later for availability. We apologize for any inconvenience.

terablog.blogspot.com

No problems here. Use a download manager, start with the real file, then "search for mirrors" and it'll be fine. Still downloading at 101 KB/sec even with my cr@ppy DSL connection--and have been doing so since 8:00 CST.

"cr@ppy DSL"

LOL. is this is jab at my previous comments about DSL?

lol - download it from Fileforum. They even gave you links in the story. I'm getting over 250KB steady right now.

Any idea when this beta expires?

Do they make you activate it like they do with Office 2007 beta 2?

Jan 1 2007

Yes, it requires activation, but each key (And you're allowed a total of 2) gives you up to 10 activations. ( for a total of 20 different systems.)

Quite reasonable IMO.

The official website says June 1st, 2007. :)

I dought that thou because by then Vista would have been out to purchase for already 6 months.

expires june 2007

If you still have problems with jammed Akamai servers, you can find a direct download link from my blog: http://mcuenca.blogspot.com/

I'm downloading at 50Kbps :(

Wow, I just finished downloading about an hour ago and the whole time I was downloading from 350 to 450 Kbps.

Amazing how for some downloads, they invoke the FTM utility, but for a 3GB ISO image they just use the crappy, unreliable HTTP download method. Even a torrent option would be better.

What the hell are you talking about? There's direct download or there's the Akamai download manager utility... get your facts straight before you rant.

Hey, im wondering the same thing. I've got no idea what he's talking about. Anyways the download went great for me.

Newsgroups, DL managers, alternate mirrors, there are plenty of alternatives..

Microsoft doesn't use FTM on their sites anyway.. those are gaming sites. HTTP isn't unreliable, its just a protocol, that's like saying interstates are unrelable, only during PEAK periods, and if you aren't smart enough to know your way around, that's your problem, not the method of which you are traveling.

Sorry.......I'm not going to pay $6 to the richest company on the planet so that I can test for them.

They can send me DVD's for free if they want me to test.

They sent me Windows XP Beta many years ago for free and same with Small BUsiness Server 2003.

I'm not paying for a beta, I don't care if it costs 50 cents.

then download it for free..

Thank you for your interest in Windows Vista Beta 2.

We are currently experiencing a high level of demand and cannot process your request at this time.

Please check back later for availability. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Simple solution, wait. Everyone is downloading it now, its expected when you release a 4GB file for millions of people to download.

...or hop on the usenet. *grin*

Downloaded it 2 days ago @ 384K/sec

Yeah, look, they could charge $1000.00 dollars if you *WANT* to participate, great. If not, don't b**** about how much it costs. NO ONE is forcing you to join.

Don't worry about it.

They still have expenses, just because they are a large company, which BTW, they AREN'T the richest company, banks are.. and Walmart is the largest retailer in the world.. Microsoft isn't even CLOSE! They charge for the disc. You want them to give away millions just so you people can join the beta for free?

You can DOWNLOAD for free. Good, don't pay for beta, in fact, don't even test the beta, you aren't in the right frame of mind anyway, we don't need your input. Thanks. If that's your attitude towards Microsoft, then I suggest you leave it alone.

And for future reference, don't join ANY beta, because every company charges a nominal fee for a disk, its called "shipping and handling" perhaps you have heard of it? The Postal Service charges them, so guess what, they charge you! I suppose the Postal Service needs to be free also, because a measley 39 cents or whatever the current rate is just too much for you to handle, you cheap skate?

Translation: You'll complain just for sake of complaining and blame the problems on everyone else instead of your own impatience.

They're spending a bloody fortune on this release, it's only fair that they charge for the cost of shipping and printing DVD's.

BLah Blah blah blah....

You'll post just to post. Blah blah blah words words words.....

Actually, it looks like you're posting just to see yourself post, and to try and get the last word in. He is absolutely right, just wait or use one of the other download sites/links if you dont feel like paying $6 to ship a dvd to you. Just because you are cheap and dont feel like downloading it doesnt mean we should have to listen to you whine

Theres ways to get past that. Find a direct link to the download.

This post is here only so I can see it here. Please do not look at this post. It is for my benefit and mine alone.

Word.

Actually, it looks like you're posting just to see yourself post, and to try and get the last word in. He is absolutely right, just wait or use one of the other download sites/links if you dont feel like paying $6 to ship a dvd to you. Just because you are cheap and dont feel like downloading it doesnt mean we should have to listen to you whine

Now oyu're just being redundant.

...or repetative...

...or something.

duplication, reduplication, reiteration, repetition, replication, redo, echo, image, imitate, mimic, mirror, parrot, reflect, echo, rebound, reecho, reflect, resound, reverberate.

In other words, over and over, again and again, repeating yourself.. : )

Well, gee. I can only see invalidation points of non-interest that resound into an eminent parabola of self indugent behaviour categorized by selfish influence and apparent flux of self awareness culminating into abysmal self gratification.

... or Let PC_Tool download it and make 500 copies..

Yeah, we like that idea : )

Yeah what a POS company they won't ship thousands if not millions of packages and eat the cost.

They can send small numbers of CDs out for free but they won't eat a larger scale cost? What kind of business are they?!?!?

Oh right... one that needs to make money, not lose it, just like every other business.

Good that means mine will come quicker!

Okay, but you get the shipping-bill.

You read my post, you bas****. I told you not to. It was *mine*.

Jerk. ;)

The download server was a POS last night. It seems to be doing better now... barely.

Hmmm, over 3 gigabytes download... Does it contain any additional packages (Office 2007, Encarta 2006, etc.)? For an operating system alone it is tad too much IMO.

It's got Virtual PC in there, but only for the ultimate edition.

I believe the download has everything, but depending on the product key you use, depends on what SKU you get.

...4GB for the 64-bit edition :P

I am fairly impressed with Vista, granted they broke 800 promises with all the features they found impossible to implement.

I mean its really sad that people that have nothing to do with microsoft can do about as good of a job as microsoft can with their own product, the face lift can be had right now with vista transformation pack 4.0 for xp.

Also the widget feature can be had with 4 different programs, google desktop yahoo widgets etc.

The search feature can be gotten from any number of other companies google desktop once again.

Firefox for the browser with unlimited features via the extensions and even themes.

As for the media center its pretty much worthless and the buggiest contraption ever created.

Windows media player 11 can be outdone on the fly by itunes for most music and video, for streaming yeah media player 10 is still good for that anyway.

For the calender app and email, gmail and google calender are much better and are web based, so those are worthless too in vista.

The security, well lets see if you get a free firewall product and have antivirus and a free antispyware and have more then 3 brain cells when it comes to computers you can avoid viruses and any other issues in this regard. Don't click on links on emails, dont open spam emails and don't surf warez sites or other no, no sites. You don't have to worry about a thing then regarding these issues. Cause I tell ya what I have only gotten infected with a virus or spyware doing something I knew was wrong or clicked on something I knew was risky to being with. (hmmm that nakedpictures.exe looks interesting. Why does nothing happen when I click on it? Doh!)

The fancy 3d desktop is way over rated anyway, it takes up tons of resources and forget about using it on a laptop, running the 3d features will run your video card at full speed making your laptop a nice lap warmer and make your battery go down the drain like you wouldn't believe. Not to mention its just not really worth much. It's good sure, but other then that whats the point? I think vista looks more and more like linux and mac os x jumped in the sac together and well this is the hellspawn.

So based on all this information what is the point? Is MS going to get my hard earned money for something that could of been rolled out in sp3 for xp which is what should of been done? The only real advantage is its something new and fresh. Which is all that is expected I guess, too bad it took 5 years of hard work for something that is incremental. I am so proud of microsoft, they put all those unearned billions to great work I tell ya, just like exxonmobil.

Gotta love america, but these are the low points.

the face lift can be had right now with vista transformation pack 4.0 for xp. [/i]

Yeah...without the hardware accelleration. It's hack. And a bad one at that.

[i]The search feature can be gotten from any number of other companies google desktop once again. [/i]

Have you used the Vista search feature? Google Desktop doesn't even come close to the level of integration found in Vista.

[i]Firefox for the browser with unlimited features via the extensions and even themes.

Vista has themes. IE7 has add-ons. Both are still in beta, so themes and add-ons aren't as extensive as those for a product thats been around a few years.

Go figure...

The rest of your post follows the same basic meme, leaving one to think you would be able to find something to complain about no matter what they did.

Pretty much takes away any value your post may have had.

Plus, IE has had addons for years, no they arent called extensions, but you can do anything with an IE addon that you can do with a FF extension. The only browser that doesnt support 3rd party addins is opera.

"I am fairly impressed with Vista..."

... and yet I can find time to rant about this that and the other without making mention of anything that I'm actually impressed about.

----- Well, that might be paraphrased a bit...

You are sooo.... misguided, my friend. I feel sorry for you.

Go test this beta, keep an open mind (very important for someone like you) and see for yourself.

I did test the beta, did you not read the rant? Do you think I just read a list of features and put something down for each? I have tested the beta, was it worth 5 years of work? I think not, now if your a MS fan boy, well then have fun.

But everything I said was pretty accurate. As I said windows vista took the best things found from Mac os x and linux rolled them into one and there you have Vista. Too bad they can't do anything original. They take everyone else's ideas and release them mainstream, then claim them as their own original idea and make the billions off of it. Rinse and repeat right microsoft?

Ah well thats true, I did start the post off with im impressed. I guess I should of put something like (sarcsm) in there eh?

Really, damn have I been living in a cave for all these years? Isn't that technology called active x? If that is the case then why isn't there a little link that says, IE extensions page? Does it have third party developers adding to them, probably not. Therefore its meaningless once again MS has looked at its innovative competitors.

I mean they wouldn't even admit tabs were a great idea. They were not by any means going to release a new browser for xp, so thank goodness for firefox.

Count me out. XP is solid and after years of beta testing, I don't have the heart or guts for it anymore.

Sure, for mission critical software I would not recommend any business to switch before 2008.

Been there, done that. Got it through my MSDN Subscription a couple of weeks back, it stayed on my laptop for a week before switching back to XP. It's still far too buggy, not a Beta, more like an Alpha.

I raised about 20 bug reports, worst of all, are the state of the Microsoft nvidia drivers. They incorrectly identify the amount of memory on my Gefore6200Go GFX card as having 32Mb, with it's actually got 128MB of memory, and disable Aero Glass :-(

Did you bother to get the actual NVidia drivers?

The reason Microsoft hasn't included them yet is because NVidia is still working on them and they're not WHQL ready yet.

Yes, just as bad, they did not actually support my mobile GPU, but forcing them on there caused the same problems as the Microsoft drivers which DID support my mobile GPU.

Seems the Microsoft supplied Geforce drivers with Beta 2 are just as bad as the NVidia drivers, the only difference in my case, is the Microsoft drivers claim to work with my hardware, but the NVidia ones are not compatible with the mobile Nvidia chipsets.

You expected a beta OS to work with all the devices on your laptop.

Got ya.

Yeah, sucks to be you man.

Nothing to see here folks, just some i