Project: Installing every beta build of Windows 7 in VMware

[anonymous74]

Since February, I've been installing a LOT of Windows builds in VMware Workstation Pro 16. I started with Pre-Reset Longhorn, and then I went and installed all the Vista builds as well. After that, it would seem logical to move on to Windows 7, but my external 2TB hard drive was running pretty low on space (like, ~500GB free which I can use up in just a few months), and I had a bit of a storage crisis in general, so I didn't think taking on another space heavy project would be a good idea. So, I decided to do XP instead, seeing how little space it would take up in comparison. Well, then I totally lucked out and got a brand new 4TB external HDD for only $10 at a garage sale, so now I'm doing Windows 7! My end goal with this is to have every beta/milestone build of windows (discounting windows 10 past RTM) in VMware. This is a daunting task, yes, but I'm not counting Release Candidate builds here as they are too similar to the RTM build to be interesting to me, and I've already done 3 different windows versions already. This leaves Windows 1.0, 3.0, 3.1, 95, 98, 98SE, Me, 2000, NT 3.x, NT 4, Windows 8, 8.1, Windows 10, 11 and of course, Windows 7 left. So, here we go! There are only 13 builds of Windows 7 to install, so this project should in theory take a lot less time than my previous one. Still, because my previous projects have been plagued by the dreaded 30-day edit limit on posts, I'm starting this one (as well as all my future projects) with a link to a page on the BetaArchive Wiki where I will update things instead. If I manage to finish in under a month, I'll paste that page onto this post, but I doubt I will.

Link:
https://www.betaarchive.com/wiki/index. ... ildproject


Here's some information about what you see on that page:

Information about build interest ratings:
The more interesting a build is, the higher value /10 it gets. The longer it has been since a new interesting feature in a build, the lower score it gets. For me, visual changes make a build more interesting so that is the most important metric in determining this value.

About Screenshots:
In the past, I have linked screenshots of every build I installed with winver or similar open. Since I'm migrating everything over to BA Wiki, it may take a little while for me to get a good system for screenshots going. Please bear with me while they aren't present.

Past Projects:
See my signature below.

If anyone has any advice, feedback, etc. please leave it below! What's your favorite build of Windows 7? I also might need help bluepilling builds to unlock the new features. I do want to do this during the project as I go.

[WinXPFan]

WOOOOOOOW!

[cream22]

Whoa, that is a lot of time and disk space (and possibly download time too).

As a last line of defense use compatibility of a old VMWare version to prevent any hiccups and BSODs.

Have fun

[anonymous74]

Yeah, my VM folder is rapidly approaching 1TB on its own! Download time is definitely annoying, but the bright side is that I save all the disk images so if I need to reinstall in the future I'll already have them.
I'm using 8x compatibility for all builds.

[techLinuxtux]

mlord you're gonna do Windows 1.0, 95, 98, NT 3.x, NT 4, 2000 betas aswell? gonna be a hard tactic

[ijustwannadownloadabeta10]

This is a great idea, I hope you can keep us updated

[anonymous74]

I'm taking a break at the moment, but I will install every beta I can, even if it takes 5 years

[anonymous74]

I hope this isn't considered an excessive bump, but this project is finally finished! It shouldn't have taken this long, but I work on these projects out of interest, and when my interest and motivation fades, I don't want to burn myself out.

With that being said, I stand by what I said in the original post. I will get every Beta build of Windows that I can running under VMware, even if 86box or PCem might make more sense for some versions, I'm still going to try just for the fun of it. The next version I'll be doing this project with is good old Windows Me.

Wish me luck!