Microsoft has rolled out the beta release of its second service pack for Windows Vista professionals who want to experiment the upgrade before final release.

“Beginning Thursday Dec. 4th, we will be making the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 SP2 beta available to everyone through a customer preview program,” said Mike Nash, the head of Windows product management at Microsoft. “It will launch on TechNet and be available to anyone interested in trying out that service pack.”

Not For Everyone

Microsoft expects that Windows Vista SP2 will retain compatibility with applications that run on Windows Vista and Windows Vista SP1 and that are written using public APIs, Nash said. Still, the software giant’s best advice for most customers would be to wait until the final release before installing that service pack, he added.

“As of today, we are tracking to ship Windows Vista SP2 in the first half of 2009,” Nash explained. “Feedback from

checking will help us deliver the highest-quality release possible.”

Windows Vista SP2 beta includes all the updates that Microsoft has delivered since the release of Windows Vista SP1. The update additionally incorporates bug fixes and issue resolutions from Microsoft’s customer experience improvement program, under which PC users voluntarily send Microsoft error reports from their systems.

To install Vista SP2 beta, the user’s PC must have already have Vista Service Pack 1. The second prerequisite is an update to the servicing stack — the component that handles installation and removal of software updates, language packs, and optional Windows features.

Microsoft does not advise the installation of SP2 beta on primary, production or mission-critical systems. The software giant additionally recommends that beta testers back up their info before installing any prerelease software.

Emerging Standards Support

Though Vista SP2 does not include any new operating-system features, it does offer support for…

Original post by dhiram