Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) Customer Preview Program (CPP)!

Hello everyone! Back in October I made a post about SP2. At that point, we allowed a small group of TAP customers access to the SP2 beta. Today, I am happy to announce our schedule for making SP2 available to everyone for download!

Starting today, TechNet and MSDN subscribers will be able to download the SP2 beta through our Customer Preview Program (CPP). If you are a TechNet or MSDN subscriber, you can gain access to the CPP through TechNet or MSDN today.  On Thursday, we will open the CPP to everyone through TechNet or MSDN. This CPP is designed to give developers and IT Professionals the opportunity to have an early look at SP2 by installing and testing in their environments. We hope these installs will give us great feedback through the automated feedback reporting tool to ensure we ship the highest quality Service Pack.

If you are interested in learning more about all the changes in SP2 for both Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, take a look at the Notable Changes Document. Some of the changes I’m most excited about:

• The inclusion of Hyper V RTM bits in the Service Pack

• Changes to the power profile to yield additional power savings

For more information on what’s in store for Windows Vista, see Mike Nash’s blog posting. The Springboard Series is also a great place for more information as well.

We are tracking to ship SP2 in the first half of 2009. We value your feedback, so please download the SP2 beta!