Vista RC2 (Build 5744) is out. There has been a lot of anticipation for this moment: the finalization of Windows Vista; five years worth of anticipation. And now the operating system is close, so close you can taste it. And the Redmond Company is trying its best to increase the suspense. By upping the stakes.

With the launching of Vista Release Candidate 2, Microsoft is marking the last step in the development of the OS before it ships to RTM. And following the release to manufacturing, Windows Vista will ship to license volume customers by the end of November 2006 and to the general public in January 2006.

In this context, platforms and Services Co-President Jim Allchin suggested in an interview with Robert McLaws, President and Chief Software Architect of Interscape Technologies, Inc. that Windows Vista still has some surprise aspects up its sleeve that will only be revealed with the official launching of the service, as it has not been made available even to beta testers.

"As has already been said, this is the last public build of Vista. After this, Microsoft is changing the Product Keys, and will be checking in some User Experience code that they've been sitting on so they can still surprise the market. Jim talked about this during my interview, and I'll post more on that later," wrote McLaws on a post on the Windows Now Blog.

Guesses have already started being formulated in relation to the User Experience code Allchin was referring to, but potential virtual desktops, 3D window manipulation, active desktop backgrounds are all speculations at this point. We will just have to wait and see.