One day after Microsoft announced that the virtualization layer in the upcoming Windows Server "Longhorn" will be released sooner than anticipated, the Redmond giant made another surprising announcement.

Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates yesterday announced at WinHEC the availability of three beta 2 versions, a first, as Microsoft says.

The products which received updates are Windows Vista, Microsoft Office and Windows Server Longhorn.

"The release of these three betas is a significant milestone for Microsoft and a major step toward delivering the platforms that will drive the next decade of computing. The combination of these innovative platform technologies and the new hardware and software being developed by our partners will make PCs and other devices more powerful, more useful and more intelligent for businesses today and into the future," Gates said at WinHEC.

The release of a new beta for Vista comes shortly after the company announced the two lists with hardware requirements and an application to advise the user about the necessary upgrades for the new OS.

Vista was scheduled for release in 2005, but it got pushed back to 2006 and again to January 2007. Microsoft's officials decided to offer Office 2007 together with the new OS and so they pushed back the office suite as well.

Gartner's analysts don't think Microsoft will be able to keep its promise and release Vista in January 2007, because of the OS' complexity and the amount of testing required for such a program.