Conference visitors to get Windows 7

A pre-beta version of Windows 7 will be made available to attendees of Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference and WinHEC events

Microsoft is to give attendees of two forthcoming conferences an early test run of Windows 7, the next version of its desktop client.

The company said that a pre-beta version of Windows 7 will be made available to those attending the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles on 27-30 October, and the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), also in Los Angeles, on 5-7 November.

At PDC there will also be numerous sessions for developers that drill down into the details of building applications for Windows 7, while WinHEC has more of a focus on building systems and peripherals that will need to interface with Windows 7.

The successor to Windows Vista is expected to ship in late 2009 or early 2010.

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