Newsletter Archives

• Windows 7 builds flying fast and furious

  Posted on March 30, 2009 at 10:08 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  We’ve got new builds of Windows 7 all over the place.

  Build 7068 is on the newsgroups, and you can retrieve a pirate copy if you feel so inclined. Paul Thurrott just posted screen shots of build 7068’s Home Basic. The most remarkable part of build 7068: it lets you install most of the different versions of Windows 7, so if you’re curious about what’s in, say, Home Premium that isn’t in Home Basic, build 7068 should ring your chimes.

  Not to be outdone, Ars Technica has shots of Build 7070. There’s an interesting story behind the shots. They came from a site known as Facepunch. Facepunch has a thread about Windows 7 that’s 180+ pages long, peppered with completely off-the-topic inanities and more than a little commentary of the “WTF” nature. Apparently somebody posted the shots of build 7070 with this explanation:

  I just came back from Microsoft, since my Dad works there. He works for in the SQL server division and here are some screenshots I took about the new build 7070. I don’t know if there is anything new to this build, but they installed it yesterday, so it probably will be leaked soon. They said it was a major update; maybe not to the user interface but more to the Kernel. Just letting you guys know 😛

  I have no way of verifying the veracity of the statement, but it’s certainly provocative. 😛

  Emil Protalinski at Ars Technica goes on to say:

  I’ve heard that the last three (7070, 7071, and 7072) are being considered to be labelled as the RC-escrow build. That build will be sent to testers sometime in April, and we already know that the RC download page may come in May. That’s what I’ve heard, though what Microsoft will end up doing in the end, I can’t guarantee.

  I’ll stick to my original guess: widespread availability of Release Candidate 1 in April. Official posting in May. RTM in July or August, with shrinkwrapped product on store shelves by September 1.

  Windows News build 7068, build 7070k, build 7071, build 7072, windows 7

• Windows 7, Build 7068, and May

  Posted on March 27, 2009 at 22:30 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  A screenshot of Windows 7 build 7068 just hit the Web and the enthusiast sites are all over it. I wouldn’t call it terribly englightening, but if you’re curious, hit this Japanese language site on the MSDN blog.

  I just discovered that the pirate software sellers in Bangkok are selling build 7057. Yep, selling it. It’s a Real Big Deal.

  The press has been breathless over a page that was posted a bit ahead of time that points at Microsoft releasing its Windows 7 Release Candidate to the world in May. I’m still expecting to see RC 1 on the newsgroups in April. And I’ll stick with the prediction I made six months ago that we’ll see shrinkwrapped copies of Windows 7 on store shelves around September 1.

  Ed Bott has an interesting connect-the-dots post about the latest Windows 7 release date revelations. Er, non-revelations.

  Windows News build 7068, Windows 7 Release Candidate