New test version issued for Vista SP2

While the world and its dog awaits Windows 7, Microsoft has another Vista service pack waiting in the wings.

Service Pack 2 is now into its release candidate phase, and Redmond has made an "escrow" version available to certain testers.

ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley got her hands on the e-mail that accompanied this week's news:

We are excited to announce RC-Escrow build as the next milestone release of Windows Vista SP2 / Windows Server 2008, now available for download. This build is available on Windows Update for download and install, or by a number of other package options."

There's no word yet on when SP2 itself will be coming out, but the "escrow" version seems to indicate a release sooner rather than later--certainly prior to Windows 7.

David Meyer of ZDNet UK reported from London.