Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is in full gear over at Microsoft with the second beta release shipping to testers in just two months. Just a couple of days ago, the news broke of a new build of Windows Vista SP1 Beta being released by the Redmond company. The screenshots included in this article confirm earlier reports of the build. At this point in time, Microsoft failed to comment in any manner on the evolution of the Vista SP1 beta program. But Microsoft not breathing a word about the development status of the first service pack for Windows Vista is an all out strategy by now � Steve Sinofsky's Windows Omerta codename Translucency. Well, Sinofsky is beginning to learn that Windows Omerta cannot get out of Redmond.

Since mid July when the first pre-beta build of Vista SP1 was dropped in the laps of a select pool of Microsoft testers, the service pack moved from version 6001.16549 to 6001.16633, although the kernel apparently remained the same. The core of Vista SP1 is still 6.0, the same as the original kernel of the RTM version of the operating system. Microsoft is reportedly hammering away at Vista SP1 in order to integrate the 6.1 kernel of Windows Server 2008, formerly codenamed Longhorn. However, such a move did not happen yet.

The full build tag of the new release is 6.0.6001.16633 (longhorn.070803-1655). One thing that Microsoft did with the new version is to provide a standalone .EXE installer. The latest pre-beta Vista SP1 comes as a file windows6.0-kb936330-x86.exe, weighing in at 684MB, courtesy of WinBeta. The first pre-beta variant of the service pack was a 3+GB ISO file containing the entire operating system with the first refresh already deployed. The 32-bit edition of Vista SP1 32Bit Build 6.0.6001.16549.070628-1825 was leaked to peer-to-peer file sharing networks within days of its release.

The same is not valid for the new Vista SP1 build 6.0.6001.16633, a potential indication that Microsoft has identified and dealt with the selected tester that leaked the prior version.

But only time will tell if the Redmond company will be able to contain all the leaks under Windows Omerta. Microsoft is currently getting ready to take Vista SP1 out of pre-beta stage and into the beta phase. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the first fully pledged beta of Windows Vista SP1 could drop as early as September.