Microsoft Postpones Windows 7 Beta Release

Microsoft has delayed the release of the first public beta of Windows 7 due to heavy traffic, and is working on putting more network infrastructure in place to support demand, according to a Friday afternoon post to The Windows Blog.

Brandon LeBlanc, a communications manager on the Windows Client Communications Team, said Microsoft is delighted by the overwhelming interest and will post an update to the blog once the additional capacity has been added and Windows 7 Beta 1 is ready for public downloads.

"We want to ensure customers have the best possible experience when downloading the beta, and I'll be posting here again soon once the beta goes live," LeBlanc wrote.

Some eager Windows 7 beta testers expressed their dismay in the comments section of the blog post.

"I've been trying to download all day, and all I got was 'server busy'," wrote one poster. "Logistically speaking, [BitTorrent] would have been a life saver here," wrote another poster.

On Wednesday evening at the Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced the Friday launch date for Windows 7 Beta 1 and called Windows 7 "the best version of Windows ever."

Windows 7 will be more reliable than previous versions of Windows, and will boot faster and have longer battery life, Ballmer told CES attendees. At CES, the buzz around Windows 7 was strong, based on snippets of conversation heard in the hallways and conference rooms during the event.

Microsoft's TechNet and MSDN testers were able to download the Windows 7 beta on Wednesday. According to the CRN Test Center, Windows XP users cannot upgrade directly to the Windows 7 Beta, although they can upgrade from Vista systems with Service Pack 1 installed.

Microsoft says it has yet to make a final decision on what will or won't be included in the generally available version of Windows 7, but advises only clean installations of operating systems during the beta phase in any event.