The wait for the public availability of Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Release Candidate is over. Even though Microsoft has failed to announce the RC build through its official channels, the Release Candidate development milestone for the second service pack of Windows Vista went live on the Download Center on March 3, 2009 and is now available for download. In this context, Microsoft moves one step closer to the finalization of Windows Vista SP2, a release that coincides with that of Windows Server 2008 SP2, since the company's client and server operating systems have been joined at the hip since the launch of Service Pack 1.

In fact, not only did the software giant fail to announce the public availability of Vista SP2 officially, but all the references associated with the bits continue to point to the Beta release. All except the download ISO Image file, which is indeed labeled as Release Candidate: 6002.16670.090130-1715_iso_update_sp_wave0-RCSP2.0_DVD.iso (first spotted by Neowin). What this download offers is the Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 RC and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 RC - Five Language Standalone DVD ISO, and not the Beta as Microsoft continues to claim. But in addition to the DVD ISO, the standalone .EXE releases of Vista SP2 in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors have also been updated to Release Candidate stage.

Microsoft confirmed that it had signed off Vista SP2 RC since last week. Concomitantly the software giant permitted MSDN and TechNet subscribers early access to the Release Candidate bits of Windows Vista SP2 on February 25, 2009. At that time, the promise from the company was that the rest of Vista users would get access to Vista SP2 RC this week.

Celine Allee, Windows director, pointed out “a few of the highlights:

 

Hardware and Standards support

- Bluetooth 2.1 feature pack to support the most recent Bluetooth device specifications

- Windows Connect Now (WCN) WiFi configuration

- Enhanced exFAT file system to support correct file synchronization across time zones

 

Performance, Reliability and Security improvements

- All previously released updates since SP1

- Improved wireless reconnection performance for mobile PCs resuming from hibernation

- Reduced audio and video streaming performance for specific hardware configurations

- Windows Search 4, with improved indexing performance, extended file types, and improved Group Policy integration

 

Deployment and Support enhancements

- A single installer covers both client PC and servers

- Driver detection that will either block SP2 installation or warn users of functionality loss, whichever is more appropriate

- Improved error handling and more descriptive error messages

- Event logging support for administrators who use quiet-mode installations

- Includes the Service Pack Clean-Up tool to restore hard disk space by removing redundant files from RTM and SP1

 

Many of you also manage server infrastructure. If you are testing out Windows Server 2008 R2, here are a few other things you’ll see in this Release Candidate:

- Easier virtualization—Hyper-V RTM is included in the Service Pack

- Reduced power consumption—Windows Server 2008 R2 is up to 10% more power efficient than Windows Server 2008 RTM

- Unified—there is one package for 32 bit and one package for 64 bit that covers both Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.”

 

Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) Release Candidate (RC) is available for download here.