Microsoft Releases New Vista Beta 2 Build

Microsoft on Monday released another Vista Beta 2 build to address some performance issues with the code and device driver incompatibilities.

Vista Beta 2 Build 5472 was made available to participants in the Windows Vista Technical Beta program, select Technology Adoption Program customers and MSDN subscribers, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft said it remains on target to ship the first release candidate of Windows Vista, RC1, by the end of this quarter.

Mike Sievert, corporate vice president of Windows client marketing at Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft said at last week's Velocity 2006 partner conference that the new build will hog fewer resources and be available within a few days.

Build 5472 is another interim beta release since Vista Beta 2 was announced at Microsoft's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in May. Beta 2 was made available broadly in June.

The Window Vista Enterprise Edition is set to ship to volume licensed customers in November. All other Vista business and consumer editions will be available to the broad channel and consumers in January.

Microsoft said the latest build will help application vendors and device driver developers working on products for Vista.

Some partners are unfazed by the latest development in the Vista Beta 2 code, which comes four months before the software is expected to ship.

"We've been working with Vista and Office 2007 since beta 1, as part of the midmarket Technology Adoption Program for both products. There are always glitches and issues with beta software. That's the point of beta testing, after all," said Neil Rosenberg, CEO of Quality Technology Solutions, Morris Plaines, N.J.

"But I think both products are going to be strong when released," Rosenberg said. "Vista promises a much cleaner, more intuitive user xperience and major security and mobility improvements."