Microsoft Issues, Then Pulls, Windows Vista RC2

Published: October 11, 2006

by Alex Woodie

Microsoft issued a second release candidate for its upcoming Windows Vista operating system last Friday. The public was free to download the RC2 release over the weekend. However, by Monday morning, Microsoft had closed the public test of the release candidate, which annoyed some would-be testers who didn't have time to get their hands on it.

Microsoft still plans to ship Windows Vista to business this fall, and make it available to consumers in early 2007. A little more than a month ago, the company issued Windows Vista RC1, and made the code available for the public to download.

The timing of the RC1 release gave Microsoft enough time for an RC2 release, which the company took advantage of. Whether there's enough time for an RC3 release before the product is released to manufacturing (RTM) is unknown. The software giant had been aiming to deliver Windows Vista to its volume license customers by the end of November.

Testers report some improvements in Windows Vista RC2, Build 5744, although the consensus seems to be that it's still not perfect. Stability improvements have been made in Windows Media and sleep management, as well as initial setup, testers report. However, testers seem to report some ongoing problems in hardware compatibility, which could spell trouble for Microsoft. We'll have to wait and see whether it fixes these problems with an RC3 before Vista RTMs.

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