How to become a Microsoft beta tester
Most of you reading this blog have been beta testing Windows 7 for quite some time, but most of you also were not “officially” invited by Microsoft to do the beta testing. Getting in to be a Microsoft beta tester is very difficult, but in the past, we’ve heard that Microsoft offers great perks such as a free version of Windows for every user that has submitted a bug report. Of course, the main benefit of being an official beta tester is to get access to software before they are released to the public.
Windows Observer has written a great post documenting his 6-year journey to becoming an official Microsoft Beta Tester. Thanks to his advice though, you probably won’t have to spend half a decade trying. You can read the advice he offers here.
Getting in to be a Microsoft Beta Tester used to be so hard (IMHO). I spent about 6 years trying to get in. I can remember back when there was an email alias to Microsoft that you had to send an email to. You would get an automatic reply that had you answer several details about who you were, your background and experience and what program you wanted to test in. Of course back then my goal was to test the Windows operating system.
Well try as I might in those days I never got a reply or accepted into any program. So I continued learning and tweaking all that I could. I would resend that email every once in a while hoping to get accepted but it never came.
Then a few years ago along came Microsoft Connect.
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Tags: beta tester, windows 7
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10 Responses to “How to become a Microsoft beta tester”
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Many of you have asked me this question on Twitter, so I hope this has helped a bit.
Guess I got the lucky shortcut on Connect. Friend invited me into the Windows Driver Kit beta test and that test also happens to allow me to get official beta and RC builds of Windows 7. However, the interculary builds are not released through connect.
Anybody know where I could send Microsoft some feedback now that there isn’t a send feedback link? I want to suggest the taskbar to have an option to toggle between double and single click. I don’t know how many times I’ve accidentally launched something I don’t need because of a slight slip of a finger.
Erm…Technet anyone?
I don’t have $1000 =(
That’s a bit over the top don’t you think?
I just renewed my suscription for about 200Euros. And tha
I applied for vista and got in right away
Can you go into more detail?
Thanks for referencing my post about becoming a beta tester. I hope someone finds it useful in their efforts to get into future betas.
No problem, I found it informative since at one time I didn’t know where to start either
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