The second major update to Windows Vista appears to be moving along on schedule and is reportedly set to launch in its final form this April, with the first beta of Service Pack 2 ready to make its public debut tomorrow. A select group of testers has had the code since October, and MSDN and TechNet members can already get it as well, but the company now feels it's stable enough for broader testing.
As reported in numerous occasions, Service Pack 2 adds support for Blu-ray, Bluetooth 2.1, integrated Hyper-V hypervisor, Windows Connect Now (WCN) to simplify Wi-Fi configuration and Windows Search 4.0. Nothing too exciting here but Microsoft does also promise many bug fixes, performance tweaks, better overall system optimization and increased stability.
While the company is making the beta available to all, Mike Nash, Corporate Vice President of Windows product management, is encouraging only tech enthusiasts to take the plunge.