As an IT professional, I have 3 major goals that I want to achieve before I grow old and retire:

1. Land a job with Microsoft and work on a product team like ASP.NET.
2. If for some reason things don't work out and I can't work for Microsoft then I would be honored if I could achieve MVP status. Perhaps my constant blogging about Microsoft products will get things moving in the right direction.
3. Write a technical book. This is something that I have always wanted to do. I know that this would be a lot of work but I welcome the challenge. However, I think I need to accomplish goal #1 or goal #2 before I can get the attention of any legitimate publishers.

So why am I telling you all this? Well, my favorite blogger Scott Hanselman is asking the development community for a favor. He simply wants everyone to spread the word about the .NET 4 Framework that is being pushed out via automatic update. In case you didn't know, Scott Hanselman works for Microsoft as the Principal Program Manager and I am sure he is very influential when it comes to getting hired at Microsoft. Hopefully, if I ever get the opportunity to interview with Scott I can tell him that he owes me one...LOL

Secondly, To be an MVP means you have to act like one. What kind of candidate would I be if I did not spread the word about .NET 4? So without further ado, Here are the instructions taken directly from Scott Hanselman's blog on how to get the .NET Framework 4 Beta on your machine through Windows Update:

The .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 is up on Windows Update for a while for testing, IF you set this special registry key to "opt-in" for the test. Otherwise it won't get offered to you.

If you have a machine that doesn't have any .NET 4 bits on it, make a text file on your system with a name like "NETFX4.reg" and put this text in it:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\v4B2WU]
"OptIn"=dword:00000001

Then double-click this new registry file to create the key. Then check Windows Update and install the .NET 4 Beta 2 Client Profile. You can also do this key manually if you like.

Alternatively, you can open an Administrator Command Prompt and paste this command in. It'll have the same effect:

reg.exe add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\v4B2WU" /v OptIn /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Don't worry, later in the year when .NET 4 is released, it'll install over the top of your installation and upgrade it. We'd like to get several thousand more WU-based installations in the next few days, so please try this out on any machines, VMs, or other machines you have lying around.

It's a very safe install. Remember it's a small download. It can be uninstalled, and it's installed side-by-side and it will NOT break any existing .NET 1.1, 2.0 or 3.5 installations. It will NOT make any of your existing .NET apps run under .NET 4.

Here's a screenshot of the package being offered on Windows 7 in Windows Update. I put in a Registry screenshot also.

And here's the same package being offered on Windows XP in Windows Update.

If you do run into any rare problems then visit the .NET Framework 4 Setup & Deployment Support Forum as they really want to hear from you. They are actively manning the forum every day. I've installed this on all my VMs and six machines around the house with no problems.