Microsoft has made available a beta version of its
forthcoming Vista operating system to the wider public for the
first time.
The company’s Customer Preview Program is a testing period aimed
at developers, IT workers and Windows enthusiasts, although anyone
can download the beta.
Microsoft said it had “kicked off the Windows Vista Customer
Preview Program (CPP), providing the broadest access yet to
pre-release test versions of Windows Vista”.
The company released Beta 2 of Vista to a limited group of
testers last month, and a more widely distributed beta was
expected.
Corporate volume licence customers will be able to get their
hands on the first commercial version of Vista from this November,
with a wider distribution expected to be available from next
January.
Potential users of the beta can see if their machine will
support Vista by using a recently released Vista testing tool.
It is expected that many users will install the software on a
spare machine for testing purposes, as Microsoft acknowledges the
OS is still full of bugs.
The company may well limit distribution of the latest beta after
a certain number of downloads are reached.