Microsoft is gearing up for the delivery of the first Beta for Windows 7. The company will move Windows Vista's successor from pre-Beta stage into fully-fledged Beta in early 2009. However, indications from the Redmond giant reveal that Windows 7 Beta 1 is just around the corner. An integral part of the preparations, associated with taking the next iteration of the Windows client into Beta development phase, is ensuring that a pool of testers is on standby to test drive the next milestone release bits of the operating system. In this context, Microsoft has already started sending out invitations for the Windows 7 Beta 1 testing program.

“The beta version is not available quite yet, but we need to assemble a great team of beta testers early so you are ready to go when we are,” a message delivered by the The Windows Customer Connection Team reads, according to WinSuperSite. The Redmond company has not, as of yet, provided any deadline for the launch of Windows 7 Beta 1, beyond pointing to early 2009 for the signing-off of the Beta bits.

The Windows 7 Beta 1 invites require the recipients to complete three surveys, available exclusively to those considered for the Beta program via Microsoft Connect. The software giant put a January 1st, 2009 relaxed deadline for completing the surveys, offering “Windows 7 logo’ed toys” as incentives for five testers, who will be selected out of all those that answer the questions by the end of 2008.

“While beta will not be available until early 2009, we know you are excited to get started so we have opened the microsoft.beta.win7.lobby, so you may begin renewing acquaintances with previous participants, as well as meeting new testing peers. After accepting the invitation, you will be able to sign into Microsoft Connect and click on the 'Windows 7 Beta Program' link for more information on accessing the newsgroups,” the company adds in the invitation message.

Testers will get access to Beta builds of not only the Windows 7 client, but also of the Windows 7 Server (Windows Server 2008 R2), which will be made available for download. Microsoft plans to offer Windows 7 Beta 1 in English, German, Japanese, and Arabic, with an additional language pack for Hindi also available. The software giant stated that participation in the Beta testing program did not represent a guarantee that testers would receive a RTM copy of Windows 7.

“The Microsoft Windows beta team would like to extend an invitation to you to participate in the Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 beta program planned for early 2009, as announced at the Professional Developers Conference Oct 2008. Accepting this invitation will allow you to access pre-release versions of the next version of Windows, for the purpose of evaluating and providing feedback. We highly value your past feedback and know we can count on you again to help us build a great new version of Windows,” Microsoft explains.