Customers and partners who've been holding their breath waiting for Beta 2 of Windows Vista before getting serious about testing Microsoft's next-generation
operating system can exhale.

There will be no single, catch-all Beta 2 of Vista, according to Jim Allchin, copresident of Microsoft's Platform Products & Services Division in Redmond, Wa. Instead, Microsoft is planning to rely increasingly on Community Technology Preview (CTP) builds to get its feedback from Windows testers.

Allchin, who was on a cross-country press and analyst tour this week, stumping for Vista and Longhorn Server, was showing off the December CTP build of Vista, released in mid-December, as well as some of the features in what is likely to be the next CTP, timed to hit some time in the first calendar quarter of this year.

In Microsoft parlance, CTPs are interim test releases that represent a product snapshot in time. They are usually less stable than traditional beta releases. When Microsoft first launched the Windows CTP program last year, company officials said they hoped to deliver monthly Vista CTPs. But it now seems Microsoft is moving toward more of a quarterly CTP delivery schedule.

The December CTP, Build 5270, which Microsoft released to testers in mid-December is the "partner" CTP, Allchin said.

A first quarter CTP, which is going to Technology Adoption Program (TAP) testers, is the "enterprise CTP," he said. The TAP build, which many company watchers are expecting to hit in February, will include functionality that will allow the build to install on top of Windows XP, Allchin said. The TAP CTP is widely expected to include the Windows Sidebar pane, but Allchin said that it still is not 100 percent certain that the Sidebar will make it into this build.

Microsoft also is planning a third CTP, the Customer Preview Program (CPP) release, for release in the second calendar quarter, Allchin said. Company watchers are expecting the CPP CTP in April.

The latest and next two Vista CTPs all will be labeled as "Beta 2" releases.
But Allchin said there won't be a single, traditional Beta 2 or any kind of usual "Release Candidates" for Vista as the product moves toward its release to manufacturing, which is still on track for the second half of this year. It will be all CTPs from here on out.

Allchin wouldn't go so far as to say Microsoft is nixing Windows beta
releases altogether. However, Microsoft is definitely shifting the way it is collects customer input for Windows by putting more emphasis on the feedback it receives from testers working with more frequently released CTP builds.

"Customers do need significant milestones," Allchin said. "But you could classify CTPs as betas, but for a different audience."

On [Windows Server] 'Longhorn,' Microsoft also is planning to issue a number of regular CTP builds as the product wends its way through the testing process until it is released to manufacturing in 2007, Allchin said.

There are two more full-fledged beta releases of Longhorn Server planned, however, said Allchin. Longhorn Server Beta 2 will hit in the second quarter. Microsoft also has added a Beta 3, slated to hit in the second half of this year, to its schedule, Allchin said.

"The question is, what level of feedback are they going to take with CTPs versus an administrated beta program," said a tester with a major Microsoft business partner, who requested anonymity. "I think the CTP is good for getting the product into customers' hands early, but for systems professionals
who want to be able to interact with the company, it might not be as good."

As it stands now, Vista is feature-complete, Allchin said. Microsoft will not be adding any additional features to the product before it ships, although the company is reserving the right to cut some functionality if the product isn't up to snuff by the time it is ready to go gold.

"We still have lots of bugs, application performance and compatibility things
to work on," Allchin admited.

Microsoft still is not going public with its packaging and pricing decisions
for Vista or Longhorn. The company will be playing up in coming months some
of the deployment tools and less-heralded features, such as synchronization between laptops, desktops and servers.

Allchin said that—contrary to some published reports—Microsoft will not be shipping the bits for all of its different Vista packages on a single CD. Microsoft
would like to be able to do so, but "timing" is holding the company back, Allchin said.

Instead, the company will be making Vista available under a new "Windows Anytime Upgrade" plan, which will allow customers to move more easily between different SKUs of the product when they are ready to upgrade. Allchin did not offer further details on that licensing mechanism.