The next iteration of the Windows client has moved out of the pre-Beta development stage and has already been released to testers. Windows 7 Beta is live after just three Milestone releases, leaving behind 69xx build numbers and jumping to the 7000 Build. Moreover, just as it was the case with previous development milestone releases of Windows Vista's successor, Windows 7 Beta Build 7000 has been leaked and made available for download from various third-party sources including top BitTorrent websites. This, in the context in which Microsoft insists that the Windows 7 public Beta will only start being offered in January 2009.

At this point in time, only the 32-bit edition of Windows 7 Beta Build 7000 can be grabbed via repositories for pirated content by any users with a BitTorrent client. Even though the 64-bit flavor of first fully-fledged Beta for the operating system has also been served to Microsoft's official and select pool of testers, just the bits for the x86 variant of the platform have been leaked.

Unconfirmed speculations indicated that the Windows 7 Beta code had been signed off internally as early as December 12, 2008, and that the Redmond company was handing over the code for testing even ahead of Christmas. Microsoft failed to comment in any manner on the leaked information related to Windows 7 Beta Build 7000. However, Build 6.1.7000.0.081212-1400, which was reported to be the first Beta for Windows 7, is now live and up for grabs, although the general public will indeed have to wait until January 2009 in order to access the bits from a Microsoft official source.

The leaked Windows 7 Beta Build 6.1.7000.0.081212-1400 release comes packed as an ISO DVD, weighing in some 2.44 GB. The image is meant to be burned on a DVD and then installed either on a physical computer or a virtual machine. According to Microsoft, the Windows 7 Operating System Beta, as the release is referred to via the End Users License Agreement included with the Beta bits and accessible through the installation process, is time-bombed and set to expire on July 1, 2009. Users can install and run Windows 7 Beta Build 6.1.7000.0.081212-1400 without a product key, and need only prolong the initial grace period via slmgr.