Not exactly sure when this was made available but apparently you can now sign up for a chance to be in the StarCraft II Beta. The process requires you to have a Battle.net account. The Battle.net account is actually kinda cool, it lets you upload all your CD-Keys then allows you to download the game from anywhere. I noticed there was an option for downloading both the Windows and Mac client even though I only uploaded one CD-Key… Perhaps this means people won’t have to buy both versions? Anyway once you have a Battle.net account, you can edit your “Beta Profile Settings” through your “Account Management” console. I’m not sure but I think you might have to add a valid game to your account before you see the “Beta Profile Settings” option. Once in the beta settings, you’ll have to download a Blizzard program that takes a snapshot of your computer hardware and send it to Blizzard. This snapshot contains at least your Operating System, CPU information, graphics card information, and hard drive storage (I don’t think it scans your files, just how much space you have). Who knows what else is sent to Blizzard but I’m hoping they’re honorable and didn’t take anything that wasn’t necessary. You might have some trouble sending the snapshot data at first. I had some trouble sending it and I know at least one other person did as well. If you can’t send it at first, wait a while and try again. Once the snapshot is sent, your settings page will update to contain your snapshot data and lets you pick all the betas that you’re interested in. The current options are “Diablo universe,” “StarCraft universe,” and “Warcraft universe.” According to Blizzard, signing up does not guarantee a spot. If you’re eligible, you’ll be entered into a pool. Eligibility will depend on several factors including your hardware (I suspect they’ll want to test their game on a wide range of hardware). Once in the pool, it will be down to good old fashion luck. Here’s a link to the StarCraft II Beta FAQ.