Windows Vista Candidate1 FREE DOWNLOAD

[The_Dude]

Expires July 1007. It was a quiet release. Only 100 000 downloads allowed. Hurry up if you want it. Released over night. I seen it on the news and started downloading.

http://download.windowsvista.com/pre.../download.html

[BlackArcher101]

Downloading, thanks!

And it's for the first 100,000

Now I just need to assemble a test pc... the hell if I'm putting it on my good one.

edit: downloading at 1.14 MB/s to boot! Damn I love shaw extreme.

[Wolfwood]

Thanks, I started downloading it before I left for work today.

[photon]

Cool.. do we use the same CD key as the Beta 2 install?

[mykalberta]

Dude you Roxorz, I had downloaded a previous copy but it didnt work.

Again, CP comes through in the crunch.

MYK

[kermitology]

Does it need a key? I'm confused.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Damn these hardware requirements.... I'd love to say I have a spare box with specs to run Vista but I do believe I call that ....my primary rig.

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

Damn these hardware requirements.... I'd love to say I have a spare box with specs to run Vista but I do believe I call that ....my primary rig.

Anyone know if you can rig this up as a dual boot? My laptop is vista capable and I just got it, so I'm not losing a tonne of stuff if I blow it away to try this out... would rather not though.

[mykalberta]

You can always run it under a virtual machine, that is what I will do.

I use a licensed copy of VMware but I am sure you can get others of BT.

MYK

[cheung31]

Btw this is PRE-RC1. Build 5536, this isn't the actual release candidate.

I also believe that you have to be a part of the Vista Customer Preview Program. If you signed up for it for Beta 2, you should have gotten an email about this. It specifically says to use your BETA 2 CDKEY.

Originally Posted by Microsoft Customer Preview Program

Invitation to participate in Windows Vista pre-RC1 test program

We would like to invite you to help test the latest build of Windows Vista.

Thank you for participating in the Windows Vista Beta 2 Customer Preview Program (CPP). Your help is playing a critical role in improving the overall quality of what we believe is one of the most important OS advances in the history of PC computing. As a participant in the Beta 2 CPP, you will be able to download Windows Vista Release Candidate 1 (RC1) as soon as it becomes available.

In the mean time, we are inviting a limited number of CPP participants to help test a pre-RC1 build. Your timely feedback on this build will help us improve the quality of the final RC1 release that will be available to millions of customers in the coming weeks.

We are only making 100,000 downloads of this build available. As soon as we reach 100,000 downloads, the program will be closed. Participation in this program is not required for participation in the RC1 CPP. Whether or not you participate in this pre-RC1 test, we will send you another email message to alert you to the availability of the final RC1 build.

After downloading, please install and test the build as soon as possible. Most importantly, if there is a crash, hang or error – please make sure that you send the information back to us using the built-in Windows Error Reporting technology. Sending this information is essential to helping us improve the overall quality of Windows Vista – and collecting this information is the primary purpose of distributing this pre-RC1 release.

As with the original Beta 2 CPP, we remind you that this is pre-release software and you should not run this on production or mission critical PCs. Support will be limited to newsgroups, and you will have to do a clean install to move from this build to the final RC1 or RTM builds of Windows Vista.

You will be able to upgrade an existing Windows Vista Beta 2 or Windows XP installation to this build. However you will not be able to get back to your original installation after upgrading to this pre-RC1 build – you will have to do a clean install in order to get back to your previous configuration.

If you would like to participate in this program, here’s the download page:

http://download.windowsvista.com/pre.../download.html

Installing this build requires a valid Product ID. Please use the same Product ID that was provided to you when you signed up for the Beta 2 CPP. For your reference, here is that Product ID:

*****-*****-*****-*****-*****

Thank you very much for your help in making Windows Vista great!

Sincerely,
The Microsoft Windows Vista Team

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by cheung31

Btw this is PRE-RC1. Build 5536, this isn't the actual release candidate.

Obviously.. But I don't want to run exculsively on an OS that is in testing stages still. So Virtual Machine eh.. how does that work?

So if you didn't get to participate in Beta 2 what do you do?

[cheung31]

Originally Posted by kermitology

Obviously.. But I don't want to run exculsively on an OS that is in testing stages still. So Virtual Machine eh.. how does that work?

So if you didn't get to participate in Beta 2 what do you do?

Find someone who has a Beta 2 product ID.

[kermitology]

Heh... anyone have the Beta 2 product ID?

[SoulOfTheFlame]

Originally Posted by kermitology

Heh... anyone have the Beta 2 product ID?

LoL... yeah, what he said :P

[fanforever1986]

so uhhh...is it like installing XP on a computer? It took me 4 years to figure that OS out and now theres a NEW one? Difficulty rating compared to XP anyone?

[RedHot25]

Originally Posted by fanforever1986

so uhhh...is it like installing XP on a computer? It took me 4 years to figure that OS out and now theres a NEW one? Difficulty rating compared to XP anyone?

Of course there is a new one, this is Microsoft that we are talking about. Although at least they have been forced to slow it down a bit, but still...

[MattyK]

Running Vista on an emulated VM? Man, unless you have, like, 2 gigs of RAM, that's going to be slow.

Although that's probably going to be the recommended minimum memory requirements for Vista anyways...

[arsenal]

I love my MSDN universal. Get every MS product ever released, as well as all beta software (including Vista).

[redforever]

Originally Posted by fanforever1986

so uhhh...is it like installing XP on a computer? It took me 4 years to figure that OS out and now theres a NEW one? Difficulty rating compared to XP anyone?

My tech guy is using the beta 2 version now, loves it, has not found bugs to date. It is a totally new interface, no desktop items etc, BUT he said you can run it in traditional Windows mode.

[arsenal]

Vista RC1 was released to TechBeta and TAP participants today.
Vista RC1 should be available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers next week.

Full details can be found here