Microsoft is making progress toward the availability of the final development milestone of Windows Vista Service Pack 2, having wrapped up Internet Explorer 8 and served the gold bits to end users the past week starting on March 19, 2009. Vista SP2 along with Windows Server 2008 are approaching the RTM deadline at fast pace. The Redmond company has as of yet failed to deliver an availability date for the second service pack for Vista, but the software giant's close partners and select testers have received the RTM-Escrow bits. At the same time, Vista SP2 Build 6002.17506.090313-1730 has also been leaked and is now available for download via torrent trackers.

Still, fact is that Vista SP2 and Server 2008 SP2 are getting closer to being released to manufacturing. The Escrow label indicates that Microsoft has virtually signed off the code, focusing on identifying and resolving any regression issues as well as on receiving feedback and confirmation on the reported bugs that have been fixed. Both the 32-bit and the 64-bit flavors of Build 6002.17506.090313-1730 have made it into the wild and are up for grabs for any user with a BitTorrent client. The leaked SP2 bits integrate with both Vista and Windows Server 2008.

Microsoft has barely released the first, and only, Release Candidate build of Vista SP2. The RC bits were delivered at the start of this month, available for download through official channels as of March 4, 2009. With Windows 7 in the spotlight, Vista SP2 is generating only a fraction of the interest and excitement of its precursor, Service Pack 1, launched approximately a year ago, just ahead of Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3). Still, for Vista users, SP2 will provide ahead of Windows 7 a boost in performance, stability and reliability, on top of security enhancements, but also deployment and support improvements, as well as superior hardware and standards support.

Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) Release Candidate (RC) is available for download here.