First Windows 7 beta due out in January 2009

January 2009 looks set to become the month when testers will get their hands on Windows 7’s first beta, despite only having been publicly unveiled as a pre-beta in late October at the Professional Developer Conference. In particular, a blog posting on Microsoft's TechNet site says that developers attending any MSDN conference from January 13th onwards will get a DVD with Windows 7 beta 1 on it.

Additionally, attendees at events scheduled prior to that date will have DVDs mailed to them when they become available. At its debut last month, Windows 7 was said to be receiving just one developer beta before moving on to a broader public version and then the final release, thus the current timeframe at the very least suggests that the company is hard at work to get Windows 7 out the door in mid or late 2009 rather than early 2010.