Microsoft is getting closer and closer to pulling off Windows 7 Beta Build 7000 public downloads. Announced in the kickoff keynote at the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2009) in Las Vegas on January 7, Win 7 Beta went live on January 10, a day later than initially planned. At that time, Microsoft indicated that it was imposing a 2.5 million-download limit, but, faced with the volume of users crowding to grab the Beta bits, changed its tune and allowed for unlimited downloads of Windows 7 public Beta for a couple of weeks. Well, the two weeks are up, and the day after tomorrow, January 24, 2009, Microsoft will discontinue the public downloads of Windows 7 Beta.

“Basically what we’re doing is allowing as many downloads as can happen between now and through the 24th of January, 2009. Then at that point, if we haven’t reached 2.5 million, we’ll continue to allow downloads until the limit is reached. However, the more likely scenario is that we will surpass 2.5 million downloads, and so the beta downloads will be stopped after the 24th,” Kevin Remde, IT pro evangelist, Microsoft, revealed, as the Windows 7 Beta became live.

With Windows 7 Beta going “off the air” this weekend, users now have just two more days to grab the bits before Microsoft stops serving the milestone. Fact is that, with the surge of demand that has been built around the operating system on January 10, Microsoft is bound to have long passed the initial 2.5 million-download limit, and in this context, come January 25, the Beta will no longer be available to the public. This is the perfect moment for users that have postponed getting the Windows 7 Beta in order to avoid the “high traffic” to download the platform and grab product keys for activation.

“The demand for the public Windows 7 beta was enormous. So much so that it overwhelmed the servers for many of our external sites. Of course, with such great demand, there’s a good chance we’ll quickly reach the 2.5 million download limit. In fact, it was probably the public knowledge of that limit that caused such a great rush of activity for trying to get the bits before they were no longer available,” Remde added.

Windows 7 Beta is available for download here.

Product keys to activate Windows 7 Beta are available here.