I have a chance to beta test the vista os. Is anyone else doing it? If I decide to I will need a computer to do it on other than my main ones. I guess I will just look for someones used one.

I'm doing it, or at least, I have access to the beta's through MSDN. If your specs are beefy enough, you can run it on another hard drive or another partition, and dual boot with whatever OSes you have on there already.

Currently, I'm booting Windows XP Pro, Vista, and Gentoo Linux on one hard drive without any problems.

I would like to test it, but of course i never know where or how to get the information on beta testing

Yeah, I used Vista build 5308 (Feb 06). Seemed pretty cool, but there are still quite a bit of bugs. On my system (Athlon 64 2800+, nForce4, 1 Gig, 120 Gig, FX5200 with 128 MB), it seemed fine at firs, but then got sluggish.

I'd really like to but with any Microsoft Beta software it always fails the install on my PC. I have MCE which could be a problem but i dont know why? I have tried to install Office 12 and IE7 but neither worked. Anyone know why

yup...im testing it and its not that convincing....there are only slightly better features....they need to prove that its worth upgrading from xp

ya same here.. its folder and look has gone a bit good but nothing else.. it also take hell lot of time to install:mad:

one thing good is while installing its not req u to stay..

and also cant do net.. not secured.. i crashed my system i 7 days:mad:

hmm...that would suck

Just installed build 5384 ,install only took 55 min from start to the desktop .video seems a little shakey ,
MyComputer .p4 2.8 512 meg ram 128 meg radeon 5250,80gig hdd 7200spin 16x dvd rw for install.


edit= fixed video shutter, vistas default monitor refresh rate was 44 hrtz ,changed to 75 hrtz

me too, ...I did as Alc said above, my HDD partitioned so that I could install it on "D" so it gives me the dual-boot option. My Nero7 wouldn't install, and the bundled "Windows DVD Maker" wouldn't run, whining about my video card. Nero7 works fine on my XP Pro so I've reported the bug to M$. Also I haven't found a "Run" in the start menu yet, so all the trouble-shooting routines thru the "cmd" prompt are unavailable, ...might be somewhere, or alternative service options may be in there. It PnP'd ALL my device drivers, tho that's possibly because they're all running on my XP on "C". Also it won't run my old DOS-based tetris like XP did ...that's a MAJOR peeve with me cuz that's what I do when installing software on customers' machines. Still it mostly works and gives us a ten-month head start before it dies (31May07), at which time I suppose the retail version hits the streets. Oh ya, it wouldn't let me install good old AVG, saying there were known bugs. The "Solution" procedure steers one to a trial Panda A/virus that dies in about sixty days. I don't wanna start paying for software like that again! ...."the Old Geek"