Download and Test Windows7

As anticipated, Microsoft used CES to launch the beta of Windows 7, posting the preview of the company’s next operating system to its developer download services.

Microsoft made it clear that the beta will be available for a “limited time,” and said it will cap the beta after the first 2.5 million downloads.

IT professionals and developers who subscribe to the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) or TechNet services, however, get a jump on the public at large; they can grab the beta right away.

The beta, which Microsoft called “feature complete,” requires a PC with a 1GHz processor, 1GB of memory, 16GB of available hard disk space and support for DX9 graphics with 128MB of memory, according to Microsoft, which also warned that the recommendations could change for the final version. The beta only supports an upgrade from Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1).

Microsoft declined to get specific about upgrade paths for the final version of Windows 7, or to spell out how many editions it would produce and what it would charge for each. The beta is “roughly equivalent” to the Ultimate version of Vista , it added.

Both 32- and 64-bit versions of the beta will be available for downloading, but only English, German, Japanese, Arabic and Hindi editions will be posted Friday. Other language versions are expected at the product’s launch.

To install the beta, users must have a DVD drive able to burn disk images to a blank disc. The beta, said Microsoft in a follow-up blog it published Wednesday, will be available as an .iso file. It did not spell out the size of the download.

The beta expires on Aug. 1, 2009.

The Windows 7 download will be posted to Microsoft’s site on Friday, Jan. 9.

Launch application from javascript

Following is the code that will launch a command prompt on the client machine when you click on the link. This code runs only on Internet Explorer. I’ll shortly write code for Firefox and other browsers as well. So stay tuned.

This is the javascript code that will launch the application

To call this code in your HTML use,

Start explorer

Photosynth of Inauguration Photos

The CNN-Microsoft project to create a commemorative 3D portrait of the presidential inauguration is live, and you can view it here. Using Microsoft’s Photosynth technology, the joint venture is designed to capture the historical event by stitching together digital photos shared by anyone who was there. The Photosynth software, part of Microsoft’s Virtual Earth software group, lets users create “synths”-3-dimensional renderings of multiple images of the same scene. Users can rotate and view the synths from many angles. The more photos supplied, the better the 3D effect.

The inauguration synth makes for an interesting view. The multiple vantage points do give the viewer a better sense of what the event must have been like live. Navigational arrows appear on screen, making it easy to move between photos, which Photosynth melds together, albeit not always seamlessly. You can rotate images as well. The effect is jarring at times, particularly if you’re prone to motion sickness, but the overall effect is pretty cool.

The real-time aspect of the inauguration synth is a lot of fun. A couple hours after the swearing-in, for instance, the 3D portrait had just a handful of long-range shots of the event. Within minutes, however, more photos were added, including several close-ups of Obama taking the oath of office. The CNN-Microsoft is an intriguing experiment in citizen journalism that may have a bright future.