The chances are that if you’ve been reading this blog then, by now, you’ve had a go at downloading the Windows 7 beta. If, like me, you used Microsoft Connect to get your copy, then you’ve been using the Microsoft File Transfer Manager (FTM) to download the software and, in my experience, sometimes this gets stuck. In my case, after downloading 8GB of software (I have multiple build variants to test – and now I’m waiting to see if my ISP invokes it’s fair use policy…), it stuck with 30MB to go.
It might be useful to note that when this happens there is a workaround – sometimes just suspending and resuming the download will do the trick – other times the suspend doesn’t seem to work either. In that case, exit the File Transfer Manager, then attempt to download something else (starting a new instance of the FTM). If you want to keep the new download then let it run it’s course but, if not, you can cancel it (you only needed to download something to access a new instance of FTM) – either way you should be able to resume the stuck download.
First of all, I should explain that stuck pixels are just something that happens on certain types of display. Stuck pixels (which show a seemingly permanent red, green or blue whenever the device is switched on) are particularly obvious on a dark background, but can be fixed. Dead pixels just show nothing and are… dead – i.e. they show nothing.