Windows Vista Beta 1 and WinFX Beta 1

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I'm currently sitting in the Seattle airport waiting for a flight to Newark, and for some unexplained reason, it's been delayed twice. Based on their last update, I won't arrive in Newark until around 1:30am. Anyway, while I have some time, I thought I'd point out a couple of very big releases that became available today.

The first is Windows Vista (formerly code-named Windows "Longhorn"). The 2.42GB ISO image can now be downloaded from MSDN Subscriber downloads (available to all Universal, Enterprise, Professional, and Operating System Subscribers). Don't forget to request your product key while you're there. There's a 34 minute Channel 9 interview with Chris Jones about Windows Vista Beta 1 that includes a short demo.

We've also released our WinFX Runtime Components Beta 1 (2232KB) and the associated WinFX SDK (714KB) that work with Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2. If you're interested in developing next-generation applications that use the Windows Communication Foundation (formerly code-named "Indigo") and the Windows Presentation Foundation (formerly code-named "Avalon"), you'll want to download the SDK and check out the included samples.

There's a new Windows Vista Developer Center that includes some good information about the new AERO user experience. Here are some more resources: