Your Lucky Day: Windows Vista Beta 2 Ready to Download

We've all been yapping about it for months (years?). Now it's your chance to give it a hands on spin: Windows Vista Beta 2 is available for you to toy with, all the way until June 1, 2007.

To get started, click on over to the Vista Customer Preview Program web page. You'll need to ensure you have a few things before you start downloading.

• Your PC will need to meet or exceed the system requirements for Vista. (800MHz CPU and 512MB of RAM, minimum!) You'll probably want this machine to not be your daily computer, if prior tales of Vista are any guide to the problems you might have.
• You'll need a DVD burner in order to burn the installation disc.
• You'll also need a very fast internet connection. Over a 256Kbps line, the 3.5GB file will take 54 hours. What are the odds of your connection staying stable that long without a hiccup?

Also note that you will not be able to upgrade Beta 2 to the commercial version of Vista when it arrives. You'll have to do a full reinstallation.

Finally, if you don't want to download the ISO file, you can order a DVD from Microsoft. It's available on the Preview Program page linked above.

And that's it! Should be plenty to keep you busy over the weekend. Now get in there and start Vistasizing!