Vista

[filburt1]

From the Wikipedia entry:

Windows Vista Beta 2 was released to testers on May 23, 2006; availability of Beta 2 will be expanded in the coming weeks to include Microsoft's Customer Preview Program — essentially a free download.

Does that mean, come June or so, anybody can download an ISO of Vista, burn it to a DVD, and install it (legally)?

Secondary question: would such a system allow for network installation given my tablet PC doesn't have any optical drive?

[Floris]

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=186075

Maybe Joe knows.

[AWS]

Yes to number 1. You'll get a key after you sign up for the download.
Yes to number 2. Vista is very easy over the network.

[Joe Gronlund]

Just waiting on Microsoft to post the public URL(s), to download and order Vista beta 2 ..
As far as i know, it is completely free..
It will more then likely end up being posted here.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/

[Floris]

The 'free' is per beta version that you download? Or is it time-limited? It didn't actually say on their pages.

[Colin F]

I'm pretty sure it's time limited

[Joe Gronlund]

Limited time, and i believe you can only download the beta 2 build, 5384.4 .

[filburt1]

Yes to number 1. You'll get a key after you sign up for the download.
Yes to number 2. Vista is very easy over the network.

How do you deploy Windows (Vista, specifically) over a network? I have a Windows Server 2003 system at my disposal if necessary.

The only time I've done it was with the restore image provided with my tablet PC, which isn't really the same thing as installing Windows. I had to set up a PXE boot server on my desktop and the tablet, which supports network booting via PXE, booted as if I put in the restore DVD. It took a lot of configuration to do. I've done it twice, and each time, it takes me more than an hour to guess at the settings to use.

[filburt1]

Perhaps it's this general process, only substituting Windows 2000 Server with Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 Professional with Windows Vista: http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;300483

[Joe Gronlund]

Perhaps it's this general process, only substituting Windows 2000 Server with Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 Professional with Windows Vista: http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;300483

Yes that should work fine. I havent tried it yet myself, but i dont see why it wouldnt work...