Want Vista RC1? Go get it

Windows Vista 1 Minute

The 32- bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista Release Candidate 1 are now available for download by anyone from this Microsoft-sponsored page, using Akamai’s Download Manager. If you have a product key from the Vista Beta 2 Customer Preview Program, it will work on this release. If you didn’t sign up for the CPP, you’ll have to wait a while longer to get your own product key.

But even if you don’t have a product ID, you can still install and use Vista. I’ll have more information in a major article that will be available on ZDNet tomorrow morning. I’ll post the link when it’s ready.

Details here: 10 essential tweaks for Windows Vista RC1.

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Published by Ed Bott

Tech journalist. Author of 25+ books. ZDNET Contributing Editor since 2006. Contact info: https://edbott.com/contact-me/

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9 thoughts on “Want Vista RC1? Go get it”

  1. So the Product Code I received with the mailed CPP DVD will activate a new burned iso I’m downloading?
    Or should I wait for more info. Nothing on the page refers to the product Code.

  2. I just installed it and got a surprise. Most previous builds had worked well for me, but RC1 just froze up after a few minutes…

    After several hours, I found a solution. I had to turn off Hyperthreading support in my BIOS. It seems that HT for my Pentium 4 2.6 GHz Northwood is no longer supported. 😦

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  4. Herbert,

    My 3.2GHz Northwood P4 is running RC1 just fine with HT turned on.

    Pete, you should be able to use your Beta 2 code. Or wait till tomorrow and I’ll explain an alternate strategy.

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  6. Bleh, second build I have tried that can’t seem to upgrade from beta2. This on a IBM think pad T42P, gets all the way through the install process with no issues, then at very end of the first boot back into the system it blue screens, reboots again and the next thing I’m looking at is the upgrade not successful restoring the old version screen. A release candidate huh? Thumb down, still beta big time if it can’t even upgrade it’s self (still no XP upgrade either it looks like). Still no real support for the Toshiba Mx200 hardware (buttons, screen rotation etc), but maybe that was all proprietary.

  7. I guess it’s all so worth nothing (not sure on RC1 yet) but java apps like blogbridge cause the system to lock, reboot or blue screen pretty much at random when scrolling a page. Probable a vid driver issue, still… :p.

  8. I thought the public release of RC1 would have been bigger than this. I can’t find any news or links to this download anywhere but here. That’s why I love this site!

    Maybe everyone is doing like me and keeping quiet until they get there hands on a copy before the servers get overloaded with 5 million other people downloading RC1 too.

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