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September 24, 2007 12:27 PM PDT

Microsoft begins beta testing Vista service pack

by Ina Fried

Microsoft on Monday said it has released a beta version of the first service pack of Windows Vista to about 12,000 testers.

Microsoft had said back in August that it expected to start private testing of the service pack within a few weeks. The update is largely a collection of bug fixes and performance and compatibility improvements, but includes some minor new features such as support for the ability to encrypt multiple hard drive partitions using Vista's BitLocker feature.

In another expected move, Microsoft said that it has completed its first near-final "release candidate" version of Windows Server 2008. The "RC0" version is slated to be available for download from Microsoft's Web site within the next 24 hours.

Originally slated to be released this year, Microsoft has delayed the release of Windows Server 2008 until next year.

During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina.
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Vista SP 1 or....
by NWLB September 24, 2007 3:28 PM PDT
.... The XP Downgrade Disk.
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Microsoft begins beta testing Vista...?
by imacpwr September 24, 2007 4:15 PM PDT
FINALLY....!!!!
;-)

(sorry, couldn't resist)
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XP's Service Pack
by neotech696 September 24, 2007 7:21 PM PDT
Just hope Microsoft is working on SP 3 for Windows XP - I think Vista (AKA Windows Millenium 2007) is beyond help - or maybe they will get it right with service pack 22? Vista is a Downgrade from XP - they got their notes backwards.
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Vista really works
by aemarques September 25, 2007 2:25 AM PDT
Vista really works for me. I have 4 PCs at home, 2 with XP, a notebook with Vista and a desktop (mine) with Vista. For me, it is painful to get back to an XP machine.
Vista is a great product and I hope that with SP1 it will be even better.
If you have the right hardware (damn!, even Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics run the Aero interface smoothly in my Toshiba U200!) and you don't have any problems with drivers or incompatible apps, Vista is excellent.
And even if you do have problems, you can allays run XP in a window, with (free!) Virtual PC 2007.
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