About BetaArchive

About BetaArchive
Hello and welcome to BetaArchive, one of the largest beta file repositories on the web!

BetaArchive was opened in August 2006 by Andrew Whyman and is currently managed by Andrew "Andy" Whyman with the assistance from co-admin mrpijey and moderators Hounsell, Daniel, Vista Ultimate R2, Beta Freak and pr0gram the pr0grammer. Since the opening we have built up a huge repository of over 700GB beta titles and still growing every day!

We hope you will enjoy your stay on the forum amongst the community that has brought BetaArchive to where it is today. You will find all our members knowledgeable, helpful and very excited with every contribution!



Why did we open?
BetaArchive opened as a replacement to the long lost popular beta collector site OSBetaArchive.com. After a long line of arguments and problems with some members, the owners had enough and decided it was time to shut down the site to the public and go private. This lead to BetaArchive opening just 18 hours after OSBetaArchive.com shut down, and today a large portion of OSBetaArchive.com's members still attend BA on a regular basis, as for many BetaArchive was just a continuation of OSBetaArchive.com's amazing work.

What is the purpose of BetaArchive?
Plain and simply, we want to preserve the existence of beta software on the web so anyone can see the development of software for years to come, and also to preserve it for the future. Some people think beta software are just pieces of incomplete code with no value, but they're not. Many beta titles contain features that were never found in the final product and all of them show how a product was developed during those years before final launch. BetaArchive offers you a free view into pieces of software history, much of which would be lost forever without BetaArchive. We also keep a small but growing repository of complete but old software, called "abandonware".

What sort of files do you collect?
Foremost BetaArchive keeps popular software in the form of pre-beta, beta or release candidate stages of development. Examples are beta versions of Windows XP (called Whistler during development), Windows Vista (Longhorn) and even builds of the upcoming Windows 7 (simply codenamed "7"). There are many builds of some products, like for example Windows Vista (known by developers as "Longhorn"), which was developed for almost 6 years! A lot of builds were released and BetaArchive has most of them! There have been a lot of changes during the development of Vista and you can witness it yourself by testing out these builds for free! BetaArchive also keeps development releases of various software for other platforms such as Macintosh, Nintendo and Sega consoles, and Apple products, etc, to name just a few.

Wait, so its really all free?!
Yes! We don't believe in charging for anything on BetaArchive, nor do we believe in shoving ads in your face. BetaArchive ask members to upload builds for free and BetaArchive will return the favour by providing a mirror of them for free for everyone to enjoy. If you enjoyed the site and found it useful perhaps you can even make a donation to help keep the site alive and free. Like all websites, it does cost a fair amount to run, and if the members don't donate, it's up to the owner to cover the costs. Being the largest beta repository on the net is not an easy task so we ask members to help BetaArchive stay on the net and continue its task of preserving betas.

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