14 DAY TRIAL // The Windows Server Division has made available for download another milestone for Windows Sever Longhorn late on April 4, 2007. There have been reports claiming that the April 2007 CTP was somewhat unexpected when this couldn't be farther from the truth. Concomitantly with the February 2007 CTP for Windows Server Longhorn, Microsoft also announced that on the track to Beta 3, another Community Technology preview would be made available. The third CTP for Windows Server Longhorn Beta 2 delivers all the features and functionality contained by the upcoming Beta 3 release. Microsoft revealed that the April CTP is designed for testing purposes and in accordance with the evaluation and user input, Microsoft will decide if Longhorn Beta 3 will ship or not.
"So what's new in the April 2007 CTP? Well, most new features actually appeared in the February 2007 CTP, although we have been keeping some things back for Beta 3. In this build, you will see some more UI updates and performance improvements, but there are some interesting new enhancements. First of all, we now provide the ability to configure multiple password settings per domain. This fine-grained password "policy" (it's not technically a policy) is configured through ADSI Edit," revealed David Lowe, Senior Product Manager in the Windows Server Division.
With the April Longhorn CTP, Microsoft has also introduced new Remote Server Administration Tools. The tools are designed to address 12 new roles and an additional set of 6 features, among which you will be able to recognize BitLocker, Failover Clustering and Windows PowerShell.
With this CTP, users will be able to benefit from added functionality with the Server Core installation. This option will enable users to deploy Windows Media Server and Windows Server Virtualization roles, but there are more pluses in the line of six supported roles: Active Directory Domain Services, Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services, DHCP, DNS, File and Print, regedit flexibility, etc.
"The April 2007 CTP is now available for our technical beta testers on the Connect web site and it will be available for MSDN and TechNet subscribers on their download site early next week. Go get it if you can but don't worry if you can't - Beta 3 is just around the corner," Lowe added.