Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Microsoft has formally unveiled our publicly available Windows Vista Customer Preview Program (CPP), which will provide the broadest access yet to pre-release test versions of Windows Vista. Customers can now download Beta 2 bits for free or order a DVD for a cost-of-goods sold price.

WARNING:  The DVD offer will sell out for certain so please order it ASAP if you would like it.

 

Below is the link to where you can get the most current information on Windows Vista:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready

 

– The Windows Vista Customer Preview Program allows developers and IT professionals who do not have access to pre-release versions of Windows Vista through other channels to obtain the code and begin their testing. Also as part of the CPP, technology enthusiasts can obtain Beta 2 and begin testing the various consumer scenarios Windows Vista enables.

– Non-technical consumers should wait until Windows Vista becomes commercially available to begin using the operating system. Participants in the CPP program should keep in mind this is beta code and should only be used on test machines – not on main PCs in a home or PCs in a production environment in the workplace.
– This broad availability of Windows Vista pre-release code represents a significant milestone in the development of Windows Vista and the feedback we receive from testers will help us to further refine certain areas of the product as we move closer to the final release.

 

For those who aren’t aware of the dates, we are on track for business availability of Windows Vista in November 2006 with general consumer and new consumer PC availability in January 2007.