Microsoft has officially announced a precedent, with its Windows Vista being the first of its major products releases to be serviced with security patches while in beta phase. "We are committed to release Windows Vista updates for all MSRC critical class issues that may arise during the beta testing period. We strive to release any Windows Vista updates as soon as possible, but our priority will be to release the updates for Windows products that have been released to manufacturing," stated Vista product manager Alex Heaton.

Heaton stated that Vista security team has received feedback from beta testers regarding the operating system's status in relation to the security bulletins released on August 8. In this context, Microsoft confirmed that security bulletins MS06-042 and MS06-051 also affect Windows Vista Beta 2 and has consequently advised the persons involved with the Customer Preview Program to install the updates. The Redmond Company claims that the remaining five critical updates launched on August's Patch Tuesday have no impact on the company's latest operating system.

"Updates for the 2 mentioned issues have been released to Windows Update and are available in the Microsoft Download Center. Note that updates will no longer be released for Windows Vista Beta 2 after RC1 has been released, and updates for pre-release versions not will be released after Windows Vista has released to manufacturing," concluded Heaton.