Chris Posted October 3, 2006 Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 Microsoft this Friday will ship the final pre-release version of Windows Vista and, unexpectedly, will name the release as Release Candidate 2 (RC2). Previously, Microsoft had publicly asserted that it would not ship an RC2 milestone release of Windows Vista. But don't let the name fool you: RC2 is really just a standard interim build of Vista and will not be given out to millions of users as was RC1.The RC2 build is 5743, and Microsoft is currently testing it internally. As with the previous interim build, 5728, RC2 will be given out to beta testers, MSDN and TechNet subscribers, and a random, limited selection of Consumer Preview Program (CPP) members.More | Here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagwoood Posted October 7, 2006 Report Share Posted October 7, 2006 This build (5744) has a number of improvements and updates from previous builds, and has been through daily testing processes to refine quality and performance. We are making this release available for a limited time only (and only by download) in order to get broad distribution and testing in a variety of PC configurations. Please note: This build may not have the same level of support or servicing via Windows Update as RC1, and you may not be able to upgrade from this build to the final version of Windows Vista.Download location for Vista RC2: http://download.windowsvista.com/preview/rc2/en/download.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cozofdeath Posted October 8, 2006 Report Share Posted October 8, 2006 Anyone try this version yet? If so whats it like...screenshots... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagwoood Posted October 8, 2006 Report Share Posted October 8, 2006 Cozofdeath, this build is the best they've made available, hardly surprising I suppose in view of the fact it's RC2.It now installs with the "features" screens as per when installing XP(think it's called the Out of Box Experience in XP). The install itself is quicker as well; I'm assuming this is because there's going to be hardly any debug code in this build.As to when it's installed and you get to your first desktop, there was only 1 driver it hadn't picked up and installed and that was for the sound. It wasn't a problem to find(standard Nvidia Vista audio codecs)but the Beta 2 build would find it via the find drivers option in Device manager. I assume this is what's meant by "Please note: This build may not have the same level of support or servicing via Windows Update as RC1, ....," on the MS download page.When using Vista, the overall speed of it was quicker, especially compared to the first Beta. As you navigate around it windows open virtually straight away, and when you click on an item the correct feature opens, something that I found wasn't the case with other versions.I'm quite impressed; I was very sceptical of Vista being able to hit the ground running and the final product being usable. Based on my experience of RC2, it's looking like MS might surprise a few people with how usable/trouble free the change to Vista will be. I assume there will be a few more bugs to iron out that will come to light because of people using this build, so the final release version should be pretty good.The only problem now really is getting s/w that's compatible, and that's not Microsoft's fault; that's down to the 3rd party developers. They should get their finger out really as it's about to be shipped to the system builders.As to screenshots, there's nothing graphically new in this release, so take you pick of the numerous screen shots available via Google :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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