The demand for the Windows Vista Beta2 faced by the US giant has overcome the capabilities of the servers reserved for the online delivery of the recently released operating system by the sheer amount of the simultaneous downloads.

On its Vista dedicated site, Microsoft posted a recommendation that asked the participants in the Customer Preview Program to rather order the DVD than attempt to download the program.

"We are experiencing extremely high download demand at this time. The wait time to start the download is very long and many customers may be unable to access the download site. To guarantee participation in the Customer Preview Program (to receive both Beta 2 and RC1) we recommend you use the DVD kit order option above," Microsoft notes on the Vista order and download page.

According to company sources, the Redmond company has anticipated the level of demand but is ceiling on the resources available; an eventual increase in bandwidth could result in an overall collapse of the Internet or degrade its quality for the user because of the networks becoming saturated with the downloaded files.

Presently both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista Beta 2 are available for download in ISO format, the files size reaching 3.5 GB, respectively 4.4 GB. According to Microsoft, the estimated download time for the 32-bit version ranges between 4.5 hours on a Fast Cable/DSL 3.0 mbps connection and 64 hours on a Cable/DSL 256 kbps connection.

Windows Vista Beta 2 is available on Softpedia here.