Although prior speculations pointed to January 22 as the release date for the next testing milestone of Windows Home Server, the Beta 2 stage is live as of yesterday, January 30, 2006. Windows Home Server, codenamed Quattro and Q has been a closely guarded secret over at Microsoft up until CES 2007 in Las Vegas at the beginning of January. At CES, Microsoft showcased the product it wants at the core of every household with 2+ PCs.

“Windows Home Server has reached the Beta 2 milestone! While previous releases have been tested by 1000+ Microsoft employees and some of our hardware and software partners, we are now starting to invite a broader group of external testers to participate in Beta 2,” announced Joel Sider, Sr. Product Manager, Windows Server PR Microsoft.

Unlike the final product, that will be a blended software and hardware solution, Windows Home Server Beta 2 will be delivered only as software. In this context, the users that want to sign up to test drive Windows Home Server will need not only two or more computers, a broadband connection and router and a space machine for WHS, but they will also need to know how to configure a server operating system. If that is the case, just head over here and sign up.

Sider revealed a few technical details of the requirements: “Beta 2 participants will need a dedicated machine for Home Server - Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM and two or more internal hard drives with at least 300 GB primary system hard drive is recommended - and at least 2 client PCs and a broadband connection.”