Microsoft Corp. has begun handing out unlimited free license keys for the Windows 7 beta, after its license servers were unable to handle a huge surge in applications.

Due to very heavy traffic we're seeing as a result of interest in the Windows 7 Beta, we are adding some additional infrastructure support to the Microsoft.com properties before we post the public beta, said Windows 7 team member.

More keys may be available at the following addresses to anyone with a freely available Microsoft Live.com account. It may be necessary to use the Live.com account to sign into http://technet.microsoft.com before visiting the key generation page.

https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/scripts/gcs.aspx?Product=tn-win...

and

https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/scripts/gcs.aspx?Product=tn-win...

A Windows 7 beta DVD image can be downloaded from Microsoft. Here are direct links to the 32-bit version and 64-bit version (Warning: file size is 2.4 GB)

Software Microsoft