TechJunction

Earlier this year Vista’s first SP1 service pack arrived with a few hiccups that were smoothed out in the end, dramatically improving Vista. Now, SP2 is on the radar with the first beta due on the 29th of October and a final release before Windows 7 goes gold.

Windows Vista SP2 will be launched in beta form this Wednesday to Microsoft’s “Technology Adoption Program” (TAP) customers as part of the development and testing process, according to the Windows Vista Blog.

Microsoft’s Mike Nash shared the details and said that SP2 wouldn’t be released until Microsoft was assured of its “quality”, which will be tracked based on “customer and partner feedback”. 

SP2 beta will contain “previously released fixes focused on addressing specific reliability, performance, and compatibility issues” and is expected to “retain compatibility with applications that run on Windows Vista and Windows Vista SP1 and are written using public APIs” – which could mean software written using non-public APIs could come unstuck. 

Microsoft boasts that its “single serviceability model” means that the SP2 beta will cover both Vista and Windows Server 2008, which should “minimise deployment and testing complexity for [Microsoft’s] customers.”

But aside from a few fixes and updates, there will be some other changes, and these include “supporting new types of hardware and adding support for several emerging standards”.

You can expect:

- Windows Search 4.0 for faster and improved relevancy in searches.

- The Bluetooth 2.1 Feature Pack supporting the most recent specification for Bluetooth Technology.

- The ability to record data on to Blu-Ray media natively in Windows Vista.

- The Windows Connect Now (WCN) [software] to simplify Wi-Fi Configuration.

- Enablement of the exFAT file system to support UTC timestamps, which allows correct file synchronization across time zones.

Microsoft also urges anyone who hasn’t yet upgraded to SP1 to do so immediately, and naturally urges everyone to upgrade to SP2 “when it ships”, promising more information on SP2 in the future.

All of that said, the focus this week will be on Windows 7, something that Microsoft is building in a manner that makes it ready to ship at any time – even today, if desired – meaning we could very well see Windows 7 sooner than the 2010 timeframe.

If that truly is the case, then Microsoft should focus its efforts on finishing whatever new features it has planned and getting Windows 7 out the door in mid-2009, giving system builders and OEMs plenty of time to get Windows 7 machines ready for the usually lucrative Christmas 2009 season.

Reports also suggest that Microsoft is hard at work on making a netbook-optimised version of Windows 7, something it will need in the quest to banish Windows XP to the history books and fight the growing Linux threat which is most evident in the netbook market.

Already we have seen Windows Vista loaded onto the HP MiniNote 2133 netbook, but as the MiniNote comes with a Via C7 processor, there’s a lot of “waiting” for things to happen.

The only other netbook to come with Vista pre-loaded as standard is the brand new Dell Mini 12, a 12-inch netbook using an Atom-based processor with only 1GB of memory.

Initial reports suggest that it actually runs nicely enough, which actually shows the power of the Intel Atom processor compared with the Via C7 or the Intel Celeron, but a netbook-optimised version of Windows 7 would be a much better solution.

So, Microsoft, hurry up with Windows 7 or face XP’s lifespan growing ever longer, while being stalked by the likes of Ubuntu Netbook Remix! [itwire]