Vista SP2 beta this week when Windows 7 pre-beta arrives

By Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 27 October 2008 11:44

Opinion and Analysis

Earlier this year Vista’s first SP1 service pack arrived with a few hiccups that were smoothed out in the end, dramatically improving Vista. Now, SP2 is on the radar with the first beta due on the 29th of October and a final release before Windows 7 goes gold.

Windows Vista SP2 will be launched in beta form this Wednesday to Microsoft’s “Technology Adoption Program” (TAP) customers as part of the development and testing process, according to the Windows Vista Blog.

Microsoft’s Mike Nash shared the details and said that SP2 wouldn’t be released until Microsoft was assured of its “quality”, which will be tracked based on “customer and partner feedback”.

SP2 beta will contain “previously released fixes focused on addressing specific reliability, performance, and compatibility issues” and is expected to “retain compatibility with applications that run on Windows Vista and Windows Vista SP1 and are written using public APIs” – which could mean software written using non-public APIs could come unstuck.

Microsoft boasts that its “single serviceability model” means that the SP2 beta will cover both Vista and Windows Server 2008, which should “minimise deployment and testing complexity for [Microsoft’s] customers.”

But aside from a few fixes and updates, there will be some other changes, and these include “supporting new types of hardware and adding support for several emerging standards”.

You can expect:

- Windows Search 4.0 for faster and improved relevancy in searches.

- The Bluetooth 2.1 Feature Pack supporting the most recent specification for Bluetooth Technology.

- The ability to record data on to Blu-Ray media natively in Windows Vista.

- The Windows Connect Now (WCN) [software] to simplify Wi-Fi Configuration.

- Enablement of the exFAT file system to support UTC timestamps, which allows correct file synchronization across time zones.

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