The Windows 7 beta test was notable--notorious, really--for a number of reasons. Chief among these is that those on the technical beta only received the same two public milestone builds--the Beta and Release Candidate (RC)--as did the general public. This led some testers to complain--fairly, I think--that they were afterthoughts to Microsoft and not able to supply the same level of feedback as they had on previous Windows betas. (Microsoft responded to this complaint by highlighting a ton most inconsequential changes it made to Windows 7 in the wake of feedback from the Beta release.)

But I'd point to another bit of misdirection that I find more damning. Throughout the Windows 7 beta test, representatives of Microsoft held semi-regular chats with testers, each of which targeted a specific Windows 7 feature. One of these chats, oddly enough, concerned Windows Home Server. And testers were told, quite explicitly, that Windows Home Server would not be updated to accommodate Windows 7 features like libraries, backup and restore, and Windows Search.