Windows Server 2008 RC1 released

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 6 Dec 2007 at 09:05

Microsoft has taken another step towards the commercial rollout of Windows Server 2008 by announcing that release candidate one is now available for download.

The company says that RC1 contains a number of enhancements to the operating system's Group Policy feature, the technology which allows IT managers to automate tasks across multiple systems.

The new Group Policy Preferences feature, formerly known as PolicyMaker Standard Edition and Policy Share Manager, expands the scope of the management tools, simplifying the interface and allowing automation of everything from mapped drives to menu settings.

Microsoft claims that around 1.8 million customers have downloaded the earlier beta versions of Windows Server 2008, which is due to be released to manufacturing on 27 February after missing its earlier release date.

Microsoft is billing the launch of Windows Server 2008 as "the most important enterprise launch in company history," and has already announced that it intends to ship eight different versions of the operating system, with and without virtualisation capability.