Microsoft quietly made
Windows Vista Release Candidate 2 available for download late on Friday
to technical beta testers and
MSDN/TechNet
subscribers.The new build of Windows Vista offers a
higher level of performance and stability as well as fixing many of the bugs
in RC1, according to the
Windows Vista team blog.
Windows chief Jim Allchin posted a special announcement
which read: "People asked for it and here it is, Windows Vista RC2.
"There are thousands of quality improvements since RC1.
You'll probably notice improvements in performance, application
compatibility, as well as fit and finish work."
The new test build (5744) has a number of improvements and
updates on previous builds, and has been through daily testing processes to
refine quality and performance, Microsoft said.
The company warned that this build may not have the same
level of support or servicing via Windows Update as RC1, and that users may
not be able to upgrade from this build to the final version of Windows
Vista.
"We are just around the corner from release to
manufacturing [RTM] and shipping this great product to the world. This will
be the last build prior to RTM, so please keep the feedback coming so we can
hit the finish line," said Allchin.
The RC2 release will be available for a limited time only
from
Microsoft's Windows Vista Download site.
