As far as the next milestones in the evolution of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 are concerned, Microsoft will only confirm officially that the second Service Pack for both the Windows client and Serve operating systems will be made available in the first half of the next year. Having joined Vista and Windows Server 2008 at the hip starting with Service Pack 1, released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008, for both platforms, Microsoft will continue with the same development strategy for Service Pack 2.

Earlier this week, reports emerged claiming that Microsoft was planning to offer the Release Candidate of Vista SP2 in February 2009. Following the availability of the RC build, sources claimed that Windows Vista Service Pack 2 would be released to manufacturing in April 2009.

I contacted Microsoft on the matter, and asked them to comment on the February and April 2009 deadlines for the RC, and respectively the RTM Builds. The Redmond company neither confirmed nor denied the two dates, in fact it only repeated what was already available.

“What we can offer as far as timing for Windows Vista SP2, is that Microsoft is targeting a Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 SP2 delivery in 1H09. As always, the final release date is based on quality, and we will track customer and partner feedback from the beta program before setting a final date for distribution,” a Microsoft spokesperson stated.

In October, Celine Allee, director, Windows Client, revealed that Betas for Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 were shipping for testing to the company's Technology Adoption Program customers before November.

Allee indicated, at that time, that Vista SP2 was slated for availability in the first half of 2009, and that it would deliver support for Bluetooth 2.1, ICCD/CCID smart cards, the new VIA 64-bit CPU, as well as allow users to natively record data on Blu-Ray. Vista SP2 is also planned to deliver enhanced WiFi capabilities with Windows Connect Now (WCN), and to boost the search infrastructure with Windows Search 4.0.

“This article discusses a beta release of a Microsoft product. The information in this article is provided as-is and is subject to change without notice. No formal product support is available from Microsoft for this beta product. For information about how to obtain support for a beta release, see the documentation that is included with the beta product files, or check the Web location where you downloaded the release,” are all the “details” that Microsoft is offering on the service pack in a KB article titled “Information about Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista Service Pack 2.”