What Microsoft is offering

Dec 18, 2009 18:11 GMT  ·  By

Still unconvinced to make the jump to Windows 7? Well, Microsoft is, by all means, delivering consistent efforts to win customers over, including offering free downloads of the operating system. The latest iteration of the Windows client is available for download both as a standalone ISO image, but also as a virtualized evaluation version (links at the bottom of this article). Still, Windows 7 can also be test-driven off of Microsoft servers in the company’s datacenters via Windows 7 Test Drive.

After initially announcing the new online Windows 7 RTM test destination, Yochay Kiriaty, Windows 7 technical evangelist on the Client Platform Evangelist Group, revealed the key focuses of the test scenarios put together by Microsoft. Windows 7 Test Drive is addressed at two separate audiences, and as such the website content offered is divided in two sections, one for IT professionals and one for developers.

As far as IT pros go, Microsoft wants them to test “Search Federation: See how Search Federation works and see how to set up search federation connector. BranchCache: Try BranchCache and enabling BranchCache in a virtual environment. Med-V: Learn about Med-V and enabling Med-V in a virtual environment. BitLocker/BitLocker to Go: Learn about enabling BitLocker and BitLocker to Go encryption using group policy. User Account Control: Controlling user access through User Account Control. Windows Troubleshooting: Observe first hand how the Windows Troubleshooting features work,” Kiriaty explained.

The best thing about Windows 7 Test Drive, on top of the fact that the resources and content are available completely free of charge , of course, is the fact that neither IT Professionals not developers will have to spend a single second downloading , installing and customizing the platform. Windows 7 RTM can be tested through short virtual labs which come accompanied with supporting videos.

Developers will be able to test Windows 7 labs for the “Taskbar (without the Thumbnail Preview or customer switcher due the Basic Windows 7 Video Driver used to facilitate this virtual lab), Libraries, Version Control, Version Checking, Troubleshooting Platform, Windows Ribbon, Sensor and Location and IE8,” Kiriaty added.

Microsoft Windows 7 90-Day Eval VHD is available for download here.
Another Windows 7 RTM Enterprise 90-Day Evaluation is available for download here.