Windows 7 Beta

An article about pre-release versions of Windows 7 in general, including alpha, beta and release candidate builds.

Builds 6780 to 7022
While build 6730 and earlier features the same wallpapers as Windows Vista, most of them were updated by build 6780, with the exception of the Light Auras wallpapers and default wallpaper (widescreen version removed). The new wallpapers were mostly licensed from Getty Images and Corbis, albeit mostly using royalty free licenses as opposed to rights-managed, likely to save licensing costs as these seem to have been intended as placeholders. By build 6910, the default wallpaper was finally replaced with a new wallpaper depicting a CGI betta fish swimming.

Regional
A selection of regional wallpapers was introduced in build 6941. Most of these were taken by Microsoft employees, with a couple coming from Getty and Corbis. The United Kingdom and the United States themes consist of wallpapers representing their countries, while the Australia, Canada, and South Africa themes consist of the same six placeholder wallpapers unrelated to their countries, one of which is a duplicate.

Some of these were made available on Microsoft's website as downloadable wallpapers and themes (only consisting of one wallpaper) prior to Windows 7's general availability. These themes were also made available, but were replaced with new ones upon 7's release. The Australia/Canada/South Africa theme was released under the name Nature; the file names have been renamed to "neutral-wp[number]" and the fifth wallpaper (a duplicate of the second) was removed.

Builds 7048 to 7055
Eventually, more themes would be added. The wallpapers from the new themes primarily came from Microsoft employees. With the exception of img3 which was replaced with a different one, all of the other wallpapers from previous builds would stay until build 7057. The default wallpaper is slightly changed, where the blue aurora background has a softer, brighter appearance while the fish and bubbles have been slightly moved to the left.

Regional
To-do: identify build ranges, add German wallpapers The regional wallpapers that appear in the final release of Windows 7 were added, except the Japan and German themes which feature completely different sets of wallpapers. Only those are listed here. Prior to 7's general availability release, these were made available for download on Microsoft's website, but were replaced with new themes when 7 was released.

Build 7057 onwards
At this point, the wallpapers are identical to the final release, with the exception of the default wallpaper, which would be eventually replaced with the final variant in build 7232.

Sample pictures
[todo: identify builds sample pictures were introduced/removed in]

While earlier builds featured the same selection of sample pictures as Windows Vista, they were eventually removed. Eight new sample pictures were introduced in build 69xx. Details about them are unknown, although it is known that all of them were taken by Microsoft employees. Oddly a few of these are at non-4:3 aspect ratios, similar to Windows XP Media Center Edition's new sample pictures. By build 70xx, these were replaced with the same sample pictures that appear in the final release, except Desert is at 1280x960 rather than 1024x768.

User account pictures
Windows 7 used the same user account pictures as Vista until build 7055, where it introduced all of the new user account pictures that appear in the final release.

Logon backgrounds
Windows 7 used the same logon background as Vista until build 6780, where it switched to using white strokes of light over a teal background. Like the Vista logon background, it is included at many different resolutions, including vertical ones. This was replaced by a completely different background from build 7055 onwards, designed by Chuck Anderson and Erik Attkisson.

Setup and OOBE backgrounds
Until build 6780, 7 used the same setup background as Vista Service Pack 1, and the same OOBE background as both Vista RTM and SP1. By build 6780, both the setup and OOBE backgrounds were switched to the above-mentioned background except that the resolution for the setup background is 1024x768. The OOBE background was replaced by the RTM logon screen background from build 7055 onwards, and the setup background was replaced by a darker variant of the aforementioned image from build 7068 onwards.