Vista SP2 beta arrives tomorrow

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 3 Dec 2008 at 11:15

Microsoft has announced that Vista Service Pack 2 will be made available to the public tomorrow.

The Redmond giant opened beta testing back in October to a small group of Technology Adoption Program customers, however it has now announced the general public will be offered the beta through Windows Update.

Disk images and stand alone downloads will be added Thursday to both TechNet and MSDN, though Microsoft has warned casual users away from the download.

"The customer preview program is intended for technology enthusiasts, developers, and IT pros who would like to test Service Pack 2 in their environments and with their applications prior to final release," says Microsoft vice president Mike Nash. "For most customers, our best advice would be to wait until the final release prior to installing this service pack."

The service pack updates Vista and Windows Server 2008, bringing a host of performance tweaks, as well as support for Blu-ray and Bluetooth 2.1.

Microsoft expects to ship the service pack in the first half of next year.