Nick White, Microsoft Product Manager, has posted an entry on the Windows Vista Team Blog aiming to clarify the availability of the windows Vista Release Candidate 1 Customer Preview Program. White argued that his entry was catalyzed by the community response that has grown around the company's Vista RC1 CPP.

"If you previously registered for the Windows Vista Beta 2 Customer Preview Program 2 and received a product key (PID), that key will work for the Windows Vista RC1 release as well. You need not re-register; you will need to download the RC1 ISO image, however. Microsoft has just today begun sending download links via email to previous Customer Preview Program participants who registered for Windows Vista Beta 2 back in June. Not all emails are being sent simultaneously, so there may be a few hours' delay in delivery of yours," stated White.

However, Microsoft has only made the RC1 available to the previous registrants of the June's Beta 2 CPP. Additional participants will have to wait for Microsoft's promised broadening of the CPP in order to obtain a PID. "In other words: if you choose to download RC1 now and weren't part of the Beta 2 CPP in June, you must wait until the CPP is opened to the public before you'll be able acquire a PID that will enable you to install RC1," explained White.