Microsoft could take the first service pack for Windows Vista out of pre-beta stage as early as the end of this week. The Redmond company would not confirm the availability of the first beta for Windows Vista SP1 in September; however, new reports come to support such a scenario. Under the lead of Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, Microsoft entered the era of underpromising and overachieving, also known as Windows Omerta codename Translucency. However, while gagging all details about the development of Vista SP1, Microsoft is indeed hammering away at the refresh. Still, the company would only confirm that a public beta will be served to Vista users before early November 2007.

According to CIO India, a source close to the Redmond company revealed that Microsoft delivered information to select parties indicating that the Vista SP1 beta would be out around the end of August. In this context, it seems that the release of Vista SP1 beta is imminent. This perspective needs no actual confirmation. It is clear that as Microsoft advances with the development of Vista SP1, the operating system will evolve from pre-beta to beta. Also, in July and in August, Microsoft made available two different pre-beta builds of Vista SP1: 6.0.6001.16633 (longhorn.070803-1655) and 6001.16549.070628-1825.

If the release pace so far is any indication, September will also be synonymous with yet another Vista SP1 build becoming available. It only remains to be seen if Microsoft will finally drop the pre-beta label and move into beta phase, making the version available to a larger pool of users. The latest reports on the development of Vista SP1 claim that the service pack will move into beta by the end of this week, keeping within an early September deadline, while the final version of the refresh is scheduled for availability in November or December 2007. Such a move from Microsoft would contradict an earlier view of what the company has planned for the 2008 fiscal year, which pointed to a post-February 2008 release for Vista SP1.