Windows Vista Beta 2 Released to the Public

[matius4]

That's not fair

I know *laughs* having said that though I need to switch to Plusnet Premium Broadband otherwise I'll be paying extra for the download. I'm on Pay As You Go Broadband at the moment. I wanted them to change me when I first joined

Haha, they've blocked Firefox users from getting it. Just loaded the page in IE and FF at the same time and IE works and FF doesn't. Bad MS...

That's ashame...I don't really see the point in using Firefox for huge downloads though. Because if you're getting a slow download speed or are on dialup. Then you can't close the browser without losing the download! How silly is that. Some use the downloads manager is in FF

I'm using FDM myself. The new version is great.

Anyway hope you manage to get it soon .

I won't be installing straight away. I finish college in a few weeks so need to get that out of the way first. Looking forward to seeing how my pc performs though.

[Dean C]

I send all my downloads to flashget, but didn't expect to have to load up IE to get the download link. Downloaded it in just under 2 hours, but i'm formatting my laptop with zeros (again) because the last time I attempted to install Vista, it screwed up the whole drive so I couldn't boot into XP or the half-done Vista installation.

[Wayne Luke]

Very tempting but I think I am done beta testing Operating Systems. I'll leave it to the younger generation. Looking forward to inevitable screenshots and reviews that will be posted around the net though.

[Dean C]

Absolutely useless. The previous error I got was 80070017 and now I get the same thing. I give up, I can't even find a place to report this bug.

[TheComputerGuy]

I downloaded...and I successfully upgraded my XPSP2 machine. So far its running great. I am currently on it, and overall I am impressed. Not as impressed as I thought I should be for something that took a few extra years to develop though.

[JPT62089]

Using some download manager I got 800KB/s to 1MB/s (yes that's an upper case B) And my internets 'max' is 750KB/s! (6000Kb/s)

So far I am mildly impressed with everything but the visuals. My games run VERY crappily in Vista. GRAWs textures don't load right and BF2 is kind of choppy and I can't play online because Punkbuster kicks me.

[Zachery]

I was very satasified with pre-beta2, however I need signifcantly more ram before I consider using WinVista full time.

[Joe Gronlund]

I was very satasified with pre-beta2, however I need signifcantly more ram before I consider using WinVista full time.

You sure can never have to much Ram for Vista , Build 5381.1 and Build 5384.4 (beta-2) where both very stable releases.
I am just waiting on Post beta 2 releases now.

Did you install Ultimate Edition Zack?

[Zachery]

Yes I did, I played with it for a few hours, I really want/need more ram.

[JPT62089]

Yeah Vistas minimum requirement of RAM should be like 1.5 Gigs!

Anyway, it has not been very stable for me explorer.exe has crashed multiple times today...

[someuser190826]

Hello,

I just downloaded it, installed it and sound card on sony vaio not compatible and wifi connection on a belkin router impossible.

Otherwise nice design but it did freeze twice so i came back to the genuine SP2 with the free Microsoft Coup@ctu to follow the world cup results.

I like the new clock lol. And right about comments above, just like Apple.

Best regards,
Francois

What is Microsoft Coup@ctu?

[Mainer82]

I encourage you all that are testing beta 2 to report any bugs you find to Microsoft. It's very easy, simply go to the report icon on the desktop and install the reporting tool. I've reported two bugs that I've found so far.

Here's a screen of my desktop - you will have top copy and paste it in a new window: http://images.techiehq.net/bg/bg_june_06.JPG

[Lurk]

In an instant message chat, Microsoft has told the Windows Featured Communities that the demand for Windows Vista Beta 2 has been overwhelming. It is, in fact, the largest downloaded software in history. Currently, they are serving product keys out ten times faster then the downloads can be served. In fact, they are pumping out bits as fast as they can - any faster and there would be a measurable impact on the internet. In fact, I quote a Microsoft representive:

"So, we are literally saying that if we increased our bandwidth any further there's a possibilty of taking down the Internet - people might have problems with World Cup viewing, etc"

People who have recieved Vista Beta 2 product keys, but are unable to download, may need to wait a few days, up to one week. Microsoft encoruages users who want to try out Windows Vista Beta 2 to order the DVD. When they recieve the DVD in 1-4 weeks, install it, and activate it, they will be automattically guaranteed an RC1 upgrade.

Holy... that's insane.

[Dean C]

I encourage you all that are testing beta 2 to report any bugs you find to Microsoft. It's very easy, simply go to the report icon on the desktop and install the reporting tool. I've reported two bugs that I've found so far.

Here's a screen of my desktop - you will have top copy and paste it in a new window: http://images.techiehq.net/bg/bg_june_06.JPG

That's no use to those of us who can't even install the piece of...

[r007]

Vista?

I've been having a rough time with my Vista install (And I can't even find a spot to report bugs?)

The whole WiFi settings in Vista are not really there? If you hide your SSID, it won't even find it, despite if you manually configure it.
Also if you use a WEP key on your network and Vista auto-detects the network, it will not prompt you to enter the WEP key... Instead of it will give you an error message saying it could not work. You have to then manually configure the network (Which it won't connect to) so then you have Vista auto-detect the network again, at this point it will figure out the network has a WEP key and assume it was the same you entered when you manually configured the network.
Also my Linksys router did not work at all (Maybe the same issues that the Xbox 360 has with my Linksys router? Don’t know yet)

So now I have my internet going. Woohoo right? Wrong!
Everything I do prompts me saying "Are you sure you want to do this?" Then beyond that it will prompt you again saying "Are you really sure that you just clicked yes to the last message?"
This is with the security-settings set to the lowest they can go (Which Microsoft calls 'Medium' security. Where is the low?)

Vista also changed the Power icon to be the 'Suspend' button instead. (I guess suspend is their solution to fast boot times?) Maybe there is a setting to change this, but I have yet to find it.

Beyond all of that - Vista runs extremely slow for me compared to XP. At this point, I am just going to assume that to Microsoft did not compile Vista set for Release, but for Debug.

The other thing that kind of bugs me is the Sidebar thing that everyone talks about. I decided to try it out, but I do not really like how it looks when it is not set to always be on top - because it doesn't have a background behind it. This is just a personal opinion I guess. To bad I lack the desk space to set it to be Always on top