Microsoft Windows 7 is still in preview stages but has already gained quite a substantial amount of users trying its first beta, if you are willing to try the new beta without taking any risk with your existing computer configuration, installing it on a virtual machine is the best option, the whole process is very safe and takes around 40 minutes to get completed on a decently powered P4 computer.

A virtual machine installation lets you try Windows 7 inside your existing OS as a guest operating-system, Both Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 and Sun VirtualBox can be used for this purpose, I will be using Sun VirtualBox for this demonstration.

1. Download and install Sun VirtualBox if not already done.
2. Download and obtain a license key for Microsoft Windows 7 Beta using instructions provided in the earlier post here.
3. Now launch VirtualBox and click the New button to start setting up our Windows 7 virtual machine.

Microsoft Windows 7 Beta 1 which got leaked and cracked a few days ago, is being reported to corrupt some MP3 files when used via included Windows Media Player 12, users on forums are reporting data corruption issues because of this bug in Windows 7 beta 1 build 7000 while playing MP3 files using Windows Media Player 12, Approximately 2-3 seconds data will get cut-off from the beginning of MP3s as Windows Media Player 12 tries to retrieve meta-information from internet and write it to any MP3 file with a Meta data header larger than 16KB.

It has now come into light that Windows 7 Build 6801 which was released at PDC 2008 had some major features locked, However, Rafael from WithinWindows has released an patch dubbed "Blue Badge" for Windows 7 build 6801 allowing users to unlock these hidden protected features meant for full-time Microsoft employees only.

Once patched new Windows 7 features like the new Taskbar, gestures, panning, and Desktop Slideshow (Wallpaper Changer) will get unlocked.