Microsoft releases public beta of Vista

By Steve Malone

Posted on 9 Jun 2006 at 10:55

It's been talked about for years. It's been hyped. It's been rubbished. It's had more of its features removed than Michael Jackson. Now at last the public is able to judge Microsoft's Vista operating system for themselves. The company has now released a public beta of the next generation operating system, known as the Windows Customer Preview release. Until today, the beta was limited to Microsoft's community of technical beta testers.

The Windows Customer Preview (CCP) is available in both a 32 bit and 64 bit versions.

However, before the beta was made publicly available, yet another feature had been stripped from the operating system. This week the developers decided to remove the PC-to-PC synchronisation, citing 'quality issues'. The company is still promising that the feature will be shipped some time in the future, presumably along with all the other bits that have been dropped along the way such as the WinFS disk filing system, the Microsoft scripting shell and the XPS document formatting feature.

Before downloading the beta, Microsoft recommends that people should first visit the Windows Vista "Get Ready" Web site for system specifications and other useful information. The product code that is provided with the beta can be used on up to 10 PCs. Microsoft also says that the CPP is open only to a limited number of participants and so presumably will pull the download from the site when it feels it has enough testers in the wild.

The company is also warning that this is just a beta and the non-technical may need to stay clear. Microsoft emphasizes that the software should only be used on test machines - not on main PCs in a home or PCs in a production environment in the workplace. Non-technical consumers should wait until Windows Vista becomes commercially available before using the operating system

However, anyone who wishes to download the beta may have to be patient. At the time of writing both versions were unavailable due to the Microsoft web site 'experiencing a high level of demand'. Alternatively, you can order the system on DVD costing $6.00 per disc. According to Microsoft, customers can order up to five discs.