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>> During CES 2009, Microsoft announced it'll let you download a Beta version of Windows 7 for free until January 24. I'm Tom Merritt from cnet.com, here's a quick tip on how to get Windows 7, even maybe if it's after January 24th. Now the Beta is officially available from Microsoft at microsoft.com/windows/windows-7. You'll have to sign in with a Windows Live id, then you'll get a key to use to activate the copy of Windows. Now apparently there are only a limited number of keys, I don't know how many exactly, maybe a half a dozen or so, so your key isn't going to be unique. Now if you're afraid of giving your info to Microsoft, or their servers are swamped, or it's after January 24, there's something you should know.
Since the Beta is free anyway, some feel it's fair to download it elsewhere, say a torrent search engine like The Pirate Bay. You'd still need to obtain a valid product key to activate it though. This is probably not legal, but Microsoft is less likely to go after you - it's a free Beta after all. And it's set to stop working altogether in August anyway. I wanted to run Windows 7 in a virtual machine. I downloaded the image from Microsoft, but the file kept getting corrupted. So, I downloaded a virtual machine image from TuxDistro.com, thanks to a tip from a friend. Once again, you still need to get an activation key, which I got when I downloaded the corrupted copies. Once you've obtained Windows 7, however you do it, you're going to want to install it. So, look for our video from Seth Rosenblatt. It's an insider's secret on setting Windows 7 up. That's it for this quick tip. I'm Tom Merritt,
cnet.com.
