A couple of days ago I read that Microsoft was on the way to rolling out their next OS, Windows 7. Me being me, I jumped on ThePirateBay and downloaded the pre-beta (build 6801). Now that I have it running (only on my laptop for now), I gotta say, I love it! It's basically vista, minus all the crap. UAC has been streamlined, and works fine now. It hasn't given me any random crap that vista usually does, well not in the 12 hours I've been testing it, anyway. It looks a lot smoother, the taskbar is definitely nicer (and way more useful too).

I'll post up a more detailed description and review later.

If anyone is interested in trying out windows 7 for themselves, let me give you a couple of links and tips.

1. Download it at this site with a torrent program like uTorrent.
2. Unrar it with WinRAR, and burn the resulting ISO to a DVD with Nero.
3. Insert the DVD, and boot from it (restart and press a key when told to do so).
4. Follow the installer (select Custom Install, select your current Windows partition, etc...)
5. When it asks for a serial number, LEAVE IT BLANK, and uncheck activate.
6. Once it's installed and you're in windows 7, go to Start > Control Panel > System & Security > System > Change Product Key.
7. Enter PQ3WY-TTRJG-677GJ-8K2CT-C8XJV and choose Activate By Phone.
8. Follow the phone directions, and put in the number they give you. Don't worry, they won't track you. Use a payphone if you're paranoid.
9. Your Windows 7 should now be activated.

The next issue we face is installing programs. Some programs are XP/Vista only, and will not install. To make them install,

1. Right click the .exe
2. Select Properties > Compatibility Tab
3. Select Windows Vista.

Now the program/installer will run as if it's under Vista.

The next issue is getting the new taskbar and other nice features to show.

1. Download this and put unlockProtectedFeatures.exe into C:\Windows
2. Go to C:\Windows\system32
3. Find cmd.exe, right-click it, and click Run as Administrator.
4. In the Command Prompt, type takeown /f %windir%\explorer.exe and press Enter.
5. Now type cacls %windir%\explorer.exe /E /G MyUserName:F but replace MyUserName with your username. Press Enter.
6. Type taskkill /im explorer.exe /f and press Enter.
7. Type cd %windir% and press Enter.
8. Type start unlockProtectedFeatures.exe and press Enter.
9. Click Unlock.
10. Your new taskbar should now launch.

Enjoy! (oh and don't forget to install an antivirus/firewall, I strongly recommend Avast, it's free forever, and definitely one of the best ones out there. Don't forget to register it here, that gives you 14 months until you need to update it (also free).

Credit goes to AiTB of ThePirateBay.org for uploading Windows 7, to Microsoft for letting the PreBETA leak, to the admin of CTForum for posting Activation instructions, to Sandip of blogsDNA.com for posting instructions for unlocking the taskbar, to ALWIL Software for making Avast, to the developers of uTorrent, and the team behind the ThePirateBay tracker.