Straight from Microsoft

Nov 12, 2007 09:48 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft is making headway toward the final release of the first service pack for Windows Vista. A new beta build of the first refresh for the operating system is now live following the initial beta release. At the end of September, Vista SP1 was taken out of preview stage and evolved to beta stage. Concomitantly, the Redmond company opened up the testing milestone to over 12,000 testers also involved in the test driving of Windows Server 2008, formerly codenamed Longhorn and Windows XP Service Pack 3. But at the same time, the new version of Vista SP1 brings bad news for those that have used a hack available in the wild to access Build 6001.16659 straight from Microsoft.

Windows Vista SP1 Beta Build 6001.16659 went live on September 24 in both 32-bit and 64-bit variants. Shortly after, the first beta version of Vista SP1 was leaked to peer-to-peer file sharing networks. Under a month since the beta build was released, a hack became available designed to permit end users not included in the selective pool of 12,000 testers for the service pack to access the 6001.16659 release via Windows Update straight from Microsoft.

The Redmond company failed to address the issue immediately, but with the launch of Vista SP1 Beta Build 6001.17036 v.652, the hack allowing the download of Build 6001.16659 is no longer functional. Microsoft indicated last week the fact that it is cooking the first Release Candidate of the Windows Vista SP1. With the launch of the RC build of Vista SP1, the company will also expand the testing process, by offering a download via MSDN. At this point, Microsoft has failed to confirm if Vista SP1 Build 6001.17036 v.652 is still a beta release or if the service pack testing milestone is the Relase Candidate version.