Vista and Longhorn Hit Beta 2 Milestone

The second beta releases of Windows Vista and Windows “Longhorn” Server, the next major versions of Windows client and server OSs, are available for customers to begin testing. Although both products are labeled Beta 2 and were released simultaneously at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in May 2006, the products are in different states of development. Microsoft says Vista is ready for broad testing by business and consumer users and is on track for release to business customers in the last quarter of 2006. Longhorn Server is ready for business customers to begin preliminary testing, and to understand the changes that Microsoft will be making to the server before its release in the second half of 2007.

Vista Beta 2. With the second and final beta, Windows Vista now supports upgrading a computer running Windows XP SP2, including Media Center and Tablet editions, but it cannot upgrade a computer running a previous Vista beta or interim Customer Technology Preview (CTP) build. It is also the first beta that includes various Vista editions, including Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate. Despite being feature-complete, the second beta does not appear to be available as a single worldwide binary, because Microsoft released separate English, Japanese, and German builds. Although there are still some hardware issues related to the availability of new Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) device drivers, and the code still has bugs and needs significant performance tuning, the second beta Vista is stable enough for most customers to begin serious testing and evaluation. Microsoft says that this is the final beta for Windows Vista, although there will be additional Customer Technology Previews followed by Release Candidates prior to its release to businesses in the last quarter of 2006.