A blog posting on Microsoft's Technet by Keith Combs hinted on Tuesday that a beta version for the company’s new operating system Windows 7 would be made available as early as January, 2009.

Combs also recommended those who wanted to get hold of the Windows beta 7 to sign up for participation in the upcoming MSDN developer conferences.

The blog posting suggested that all who were to attend the aforementioned conferences would receive a DVD with Windows 7 beta 1 on it, adding though that the attendees for the December events would not benefit from the offer.

Keith Combs stated that the DVDs containing the beta version of Windows 7 would not be ready until January 13, the earliest.

In other news, Microsoft announced Monday that beta versions of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 service pack 2 (SP2) had been made available to TechNet and MSDN subscribers.

Moreover, beginning Thursday, December 4, these updates will be available to the public via TechNet's Customer Preview Program (CPP).

The company has revealed that these beta versions targeted developers and IT professionals, recommending the large public to wait for the final release, which where Windows Vista SP2 is concerned, has been scheduled for the first half of the following year.

Microsoft pulled the wraps off the beta version for Windows 7 at their Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles held on October 28, where a pre-release version of the new software was made available for developers that participated in the conference.