14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Server codename Longhorn has made yet another step on the evolution to the Beta 3 stage. Longhorn is currently in Beta 2 and a member of the Windows server Division revealed at the end of March that the product is right on track for RTM. Bob Muglia, Senior Vice President of the Server and Tools Business (STB) has confirmed that the final version of Windows Server Longhorn will be released in the second part of 2007.
Beta 3 will be the first public milestone of Windows Server Longhorn, and the Redmond Company has opened pre-registrations as yearly as December 13 2006. But on track to the Beta 3 release, Microsoft has made available a total of three Community Technology Preview (CTP) builds. The first one dropped on December 21 2006, right on time for the holidays.
The Microsoft Technical Beta Program participants then had access to the February 2007 CTP of Windows Server Longhorn. The second CTP build for Beta 2 included the Server Manager tool and improvements to server roles and features as well as some user interface modifications.
Well, Windows Server Longhorn April 2007 CTP is now available for download to technical Beta Program participants. This is the last CTP that Microsoft will release; the upcoming refresh of Windows Server Longhorn will be Beta 3. Microsoft will release Windows Server Longhorn Beta 3 by the end of May 2007.
You will be able to identify the April 2007 CTP by the following build number: 6001-16497-070330-1720. There are of course two versions available for download: 0x238801E6 wsl_6001-16497-070330-1720_x86fre_server-KB3SFRE_EN_DVD.iso and 0xB27FF9A0 wsl_6001-16497-070330-1720_x64fre_server-KB3SxFRE_EN_DVD.iso.