Today I got an email from Microsoft Connect that I was accepted in the Windows 7 International Beta Program (Norwegian). The information in the Win 7 Beta documentation suggests that the RC is soon to arrive. Over on the WinSupersite Paul Thurrott just posted that 6.1.7100.0.winmain_win7rc.090421-1700 is arriving soon (just a teaser post – as is this one ;-).

Will report as soon as I am able to start downloading the bits. My guess – sometime Friday…;-)

I took Paul Thurrott’s challenge and installed Windows 7 Beta on my main computer; this Hp dv9074es laptop. After downloading the file from technet, burning it to DVD, along with backing up and moving some data, I formatted the C drive and installed Windows 7 Beta. The installation process? Smoother than ever. It did not take long until the system was up and running. After checking the Device Manager I found that there were 2 base computer devices (which turned out to be my Ricoh 5 in 1 card reader, and 1 additional cpu driver that hadn’t installed correctly. After opening the folder where I had my Vista x64 drivers, the Device Manager was clean in just about 5 minutes.

I then installed the KB961367 update, which fixes the bug that caused Win 7 to disrupt mp-3 files. Then I installed Norton Internet Security 2009 without a glitch. Next up was the Windows Live Essentials suite and then Office 2007. No problems whatsoever.

Then came the time to install iTunes…

First: I love my iPhone. It is just great, with all the shortcomings it has, it still is the best phone I have ever had. No doubt. Too bad that I have to use an app like iTunes to sync it (I know there are alternatives – but not complete alternatives).

To be honest I also found my first mistake in making backups before wiping the C drive; I had forgotten to backup my playlists… 🙁 . Anyway – after having installed iTunes, which in itself went without any problems, I find myself in a situation where it freezes or crashes when I try to edit album and song information, particularly when trying to add album art. Try adding it to 3 albums in a row – total freeze up. Not one button works and I have to resort to the Task Manager to quit the application – and even that does not work all the time. Bummer…

I don’t know whether this is related to one of the drivers in iTunes, iTunes itself or something in Windows 7, but it really p… me off for a while. Leaving the album art as it is makes the app workable although not perfect. Lets see it there will be an update on apple.com in the future. Unless, of course, this problem is only mine…

Besides that my first impressions of Windows 7 is good – really good. It is almost unbelievable that this is a beta product. The quality of it is simply stunning.

I will poke around the system for the next few days and then write up some more of my impressions, but for now it looks like Microsoft has got a winner or their hands.

edited; Removed the number 1 after “Windows 7 Beta” since it was incorrect; there is only going to be 1 public beta – next up is the Release Candidate!