Microsoft releases Vista SP1 beta

Microsoft Corp. today released the beta of Windows Vista Service Pack 1, a long-awaited reliability and performance update, to an invite-only group of testers. Nick White, a program manager on the Vista team, announced the beta drop in a posting to a company blog. ?Today we release the Beta of windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) to a private group of Beta testers via connect.microsoft.com,? White said, referring to Microsoft?s beta test site. Late last month, when Microsoft finally confirmed the beta and partially outlined its schedule, an executive promised that SP1?s first preview would be out before the end of September. Microsoft has invited approximately 12,000 people to test SP1, Mike Nash, the head of Windows client operating system product management, said in a videotaped interview posted on Microsoft?s Channel 9 site.

A later build during the release candidate period will be available to a larger group. Microsoft has said that MSDN and TechNet subscribers will be able to participate in that round of testing. According to another Microsoft-employed blogger, Brandon LeBlanc, users must download and install up to three prerequisites before updating to SP1 with Windows Update. Those prerequisites, said LeBlanc, include updates to the Windows servicing stack, an unspecified update to Windows and an update to BitLocker, the whole-disk encryption tool that?s part of Vista Ultimate and Vista Enterprise. Some or all of the prerequisites will be pushed to users as part of regularly scheduled updates in the months leading up to SP1?s final release, which Microsoft has set for sometime in the first quarter of 2008. That?s finaly a time when many of you may consider installing Windows Vista in my opinion xp ftw

well lets just say it is Magic!!) the artwork :wink: