Windows 7: the NEW efficiency: Free Win 7 with Product Key

Edit: Additions below, as a "Part 2"

Since I didn't know what to expect for the Denver freebie, thought I'd give my impressions of what and how.

(SF member y0himba has provided some good pics of Pittsburg event, via his post at:
When will you get Windows 7 RTM?
(By the time Antman goes, he'll suffer from "deja view".)

I signed up for AM Developer and the PM IT Pro. (Tried for 2 freebies)

You arrive 'on-time', more-or-less, doesn't matter.
Inside, lined up against the Right wall are several tables. 5 or 6 for "Registration".
1. You need your BAR-CODE on a printout, and your 'last name' w/ID.
That's all that matters. Make sure your printout has a well-formed barcode.
I had a color print from Kinkos that looked horrible, so I insured crisp B/W prints, assuming potential problems w/color.

2. Sure as hell, the flippin scanner couldn't read the color copy, B/W was AOK.

3. You get a white plastic bag of stuff: Extra-Large T-shirt, pen and propaganda. Two DVD sleeves, 4 DVDs of demo/evaluation sw. (See Part 2, below)
AND, some white-paper about 5" wide. <===< This has your sticky Name-badge, the ticket for AM and/or PM session, AND the freebie 'sw ticket'.
This is the one to treasure, and not lose.
At the end of the sessions, you MUST TRADE IN the 'sw ticket' for the 32 bit Ultimate DVD in cardboard wrapper.
No box - and only one per customer (unless you fare better than I).
The holder, open it before you leave, has a Yellow sticker @ Bottom Right.
There's the Product ID.
The DVD is 32-bit Ultimate, no 64. Although there does exist a 'pocket' in the R-hand flap.

4. At the Left wall were 2 other Reg. desks. All desks must have been very busy earlier.
Time span was 0730 to 0900. I showed at 0830, having anticipated early crowded lines.

5. Walking closer toward the theaters, there were the 'breakfast' tables, strewn with food items. Take your time here and enjoy.
I was pressed because of smoke-break and kinda rushed it.
Interesting table, to me, was laden with Danish, muffins (corn, blueberry, bran, etc), Doughnuts (variety), etc.
I was tempted by the corn muffin, but the poppy-seed bagel said "Me"...
The girl asked if I wanted jelly but I went for the Kraft cream-cheese, being a NY at heart.
Carried it into the theater and felt cheated cause it was a half-bagel, sliced vertically.
Luckily it was sliced horiz, for ease of spreading the cream-cheese.

6. In the building were about 10-12 theaters. I arbitrarily chose one.
Happened to be 2008 Server R2.
Was going to stand-up and yell "bobtran from SevenForums?", but thought he was only IT Pro in PM..

>===> Herein lies a Problem: If you really want a specific 'Track', like I did for the Windows 7 track, BE SURE to find out which Theater it's supposed to be held in.
ASK the Registration-guy at the table, before you walk away, with your Goodie-bag, Name-tag and 'sw ticket'.
Good chance its wrong anyway. Denver was, for the PM IT Professional schedule.

What to wear:
If you're employed, wear those.
I didn't know, so I had a light-blue SS sport shirt, with black slax. No tie.
Casual, Comfortable, Clean.



What it boils down to is a large crowd, looking for the freebie, with NO real organization, direction, or professionalism.
Everybody there, excluding the crowd, was a contractor or vendor: Registration people, food, sw, you name it.
Nobody in control, vendors doing their best to please the crowds, pleasant smiles while dishing up bagels and cream-cheese.

I felt like a human-being again.

If I had a 14-year son who wanted to attend, I would have brought him along, have him wait by an inside theater, then joined him after registration. Then go to the correct place for the Windows 7 'Track'...

*************************************************************
I mentioned 'SevenForums.com' to LITERALLY everyone I talked to...

Part 2

*************************************************************
The white bag has these, as the DVDs:

White, longer folder, w/light-bulb has 2 DVDs:

1. Win Server 2008 R2, 180 day Evaluation:
Standard, Enterprise, Data Center, and 'Web Server 2008 R2'.

This disk contains x64 software only.

2. MS Forefront Protection Suite (formerly Ff "Sterling") Beta.
----------------------------------------------------------------
The other folder has a pic of Mark Russinovich on the front, 2 DVDs.
Labeled "Springboard Series" // MSDN.

Blue DVD w/Mark's pic says: Disc 1 - Readiness Resources for IT Pros.

I poked around this one, and rather like it. Good film on Deployment, DISM, etc.
Has films and links to stuff I've seen on Springboard, posted here on SF.
Subject 'divisions' are: DVD Home,
Windows 7 Overview,
Deployment Resources, <-- USM Tool.
Application Compatibility
Manageability,
Networking and Anywhere Access,
MS Desktop Optimization Pack, <-- Disapp here. Says DaRT, no real meat.
Desktop Virtualization,
Security, <-- AppLocker, BitLocker, BL_to_go.
IE8 Resources.
I'll be enjoying this one for a while.
I -think- this material 'represents' what I missed in the "Windows 7 Track".


Orange DVD, MSDN, says: Disc 2 :
Windows Developer Jumpstart Kit,
Win IE-8 Readiness Toolkit.

Ain't looked here yet, but JS Kit may be interesting.

Ahh, what the hell - I'm on a roll here:
*************************************************************

Part 3

*************************************************************

Took a few notes, using my time-tested Word_processor,
black ball-point pen, red bpp, and 5-subject spiral-bound.

The IT Pros used laptops, netbooks, cellphones, and all the new stuff.
I'm not a 'keyboarder', so I didn't bring mine.

Some buzzwords:
09:00 session = WinServer 2008 R2:
PowerShell - Networking, Debug capab - domain contrlr
splitscreen - remote at top,
> $local notepad

Win Web Services API - new
New in Win 7: File Classification Infrastructure (FCI)
------------
Somehow, we got into: Parallelism
cpu, 64 cores
can use threads = Hvywgt
routine 'walk-tree', 9 deep, 1024 nodes
out-of-memy exceptions
used context switching

can use tasks = Lgtwgt
Buzz:
1. Imperative Task Parallelism
2. Declarative Data Parallelism

10:00 hrs
Visual Studio 2010 - Beta? Nuf said

11:00 hrs
Web Platform Tools: Pwd by IIS-7
Develop --> Staging --> Deploy

Web Platform Installer 2.0 RC

IIS-6 not platform // IIS-7 opens up "Extensibility"

nuf there, too.

The 'lovely lady' had the exact same WP tools that I had.
But she had a Masters...

That is a bummer that they hand out 32-bit. Oh well, I already purchased my 64-bit that I plan to use. I'll likely just give this one to my dad or something.

Thanks for that chuckr, very interesting and well written.

Best shelve it, so you can sleep at night:

Microsoft: Validation for Windows 7 is coming soon!

Well, I'm just going to have to check on the agreement when I get the copy. Maybe I'll put it on one of my own personal computers and just give the computer to my dad as a gift.

There is no bar code in my email.

It reads, in part: This message confirms your attendance at the The New Efficiency: IT Professional and Developer Technical Briefing St. Louis. Please print this e-mail and bring it with you to the event as confirmation of your registration. You will not receive a confirmation number.

Also:
Please note that you must bring photo identification to check-in to this event.

YOU ARE REGISTERED FOR:

Developer Windows 7 Track (9-11:35am)
IT Professional Windows 7 Track (1:15-4:45pm

So am I missing something here?

Edit: Nevermind. I went to the web site to view my info using IE instead of chrome and have a bar code.

I am going to the IT track on the 30th in Pittsburgh. Thanks for posting this, much appreciated.

great info, chuckr. No way in hell am I going to be there when they open at 7:30 a.m. Might be reading you wrong - you could attend whatever you wanted, even if you didn't sign up for it?

Actually I believe that you probably could give it to your dad. You are obligated to not SELL it, I've seen nothing about giving it away.

As for "Was going to stand-up and yell "bobtran from SevenForums?", but thought he was only IT Pro in PM.."

I was in there with you and I agree with your assessment of the event.

The key for the 32 bit version will work with 32 or 64 bit cds, so if you already have a 64 bit disk you can just use the cd key you got to install 64 bit anyway.

Stinks they only give you 32 bit cds, but it does not matter in the end at least!