Download Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta from FileForum now.

The first public tests of Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 2 and Windows Server Service Pack 2 (both have the same kernel) were released this morning, and you can download them for yourself now.

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Not one half-hour after Microsoft responded to BetaNews' inquiry, the company reversed its position, effectively announcing that the first public betas of Vista SP2 not in February, but next Thursday.

The word of a December 4 public beta release officially came from Microsoft Corp. Vice President Mike Nash at 4:23 pm this afternoon, moments after our story about rumors of a Q1 2009 beta release went live.

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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is now under court order to testify in a case charging Microsoft with deceptive marketing, despite his protests that he knew nothing about the "Vista Capable" mess.

Ballmer has been compelled by a court to testify in a class action suit accusing Microsoft of providing misleading information about the ability of some Intel-based PCs to run Vista. But Friday's ruling in the case by US District Judge Marsha Pechman places a time limit of three hours on Ballmer's deposition.

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A change in the way the Windows client enables IP routes to be amended manually is the target of a potentially serious exploit for Vista users only, that Microsoft may now have no choice but to address.

Through SecurityFocus.com last Wednesday, a team of researchers at Phion published a proof of concept that demonstrates how Microsoft's Internet Protocol Helper API could be exploited to trigger a stack buffer overflow, potentially leading to the execution of random code. Unusually, this particular exploit can only be recreated, Phion said in its bulletin, on Windows Vista Enterprise and Ultimate versions, in 32- and 64-bit editions.

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Although its CEO claims no knowledge of the event, and other Microsoft execs raised opposition, Microsoft dropped a key requirement for "Vista Capable" PCs at Intel's request in 2006, according to e-mails now unsealed by a federal judge.

In a lawsuit charging deceptive marketing around Windows Vista, a chain of e-mails now unsealed by a federal court judge suggests that, under pressure from Intel, Microsoft relaxed its standards for "Vista Capable" PCs, enraging its partner Hewlett-Packard. Meanwhile, Microsoft has sought to excuse company CEO Steve Ballmer from testifying in the case.

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At a WinHEC session in Los Angeles last week, bloggers report, just during last September, of the driver installations for Windows Vista automatically reported back to Microsoft, over 11% of install attempts for printer drivers failed.

Although no video was produced for this specific WinHEC session last Wednesday, Angus Kidman of APC and John Lister of Blorge both report that a table presented by Microsoft Senior Program Manager Chris Matichuk showed that 11.24% of all Vista-based printer driver installations automatically reported back to Microsoft, were failures.

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Remember the good old days when it seemed that a PC on everyone's desktop was a modern miracle? After recent experiences with Vista, the course Ray Ozzie may set for Windows 7 appears intended to recapture some of that magic.

Windows Vista has been described with a wide variety of adjectives, ranging from an ongoing success to, in the words of my friend and colleague at Microsoft Watch, Joe Wilcox, a "flop." The very fact that such a variety of monikers exists is all the indicator one needs that something went wrong during the lifecycle of this product.

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Giving a nod to developers who've apparently given a lot of feedback, as well as "certain commercials," Microsoft's platform chief Steven Sinofsky acknowledged that perhaps User Account Control in Windows Vista may have been...a little annoying. In turn, Windows 7 has additional UAC settings.

"We got a lot of feedback about Windows Vista," Sinofsky said, before pausing several seconds for the inevitable developer response. Given the vast amount of response he received, he said, "We have to do what developers do." That is, to sit back, re-evaluate, and say, "What did we learn from that?" That, he said, is what engineering is about.

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With Microsoft picking up the pace in both the development and marketing of Windows 7, it's also finding itself moving ahead with the next amendment package for Vista not too long after the release of SP1.

In an early piece of news that we had expected to hear on Monday, Microsoft will release the first beta editions of Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista to private testers on Wednesday, October 29. Those testers will be among the first, according to a blog post from Windows 7 corporate VP Mike Nash this afternoon, to test burning data directly to Blu-ray Discs using only the Vista OS.

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A less-than-critical Vista hole could become more critical, as Microsoft's security team says it's aware of a published exploit that could enable an ordinary process to pass itself off as a system process with unrestricted access.

Last April, Microsoft admitted to a serious, though perhaps not critical, security hole in all modern versions of Windows including XP and Vista. But a notice posted last Thursday to the company's Security Response Center blog, warning of a published exploit using that same technique, is an indication that the hole has gone unplugged all this time.

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Download Norton Labs UAC Tool for Windows Vista from FileForum now.

The latest freeware tool from Norton Labs offers to do Vista users a favor by turning off many of those annoying User Access Control prompts. If you're wondering what Symantec wants in return...so were we.

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3:20 pm EDT September 12, 2008 - Apple has released an updated version of iTunes 8 to correct the BSOD problems some users have been experiencing after installing the software. The issue relates to a driver that conflicts with Windows Vista.

In a support posting, Apple said: "After installing iTunes 8 for Windows, some users may see a blue screen error message when connecting iPhone or iPod to a Windows Vista computer. In some cases, the computer may immediately restart when connecting iPhone or iPod to the computer."

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Just minutes after viewing the first installment of Microsoft's new $300 million TV ad campaign featuring comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Chairman Bill Gates, BetaNews' Tim Conneally filed this video to record his first thoughts.

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Download ZoneAlarm Pro Beta 8.0.020.000 for Windows XP and 32-bit Vista from FileForum now.

The difficulty for third-party developers to produce security software for the most feature-rich Vista kernel continues to this day, and a lack of news from ZoneAlarm suggests it could persist well into next year.

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It might not have even been a story meriting any extent of coverage -- Microsoft's hiring yesterday of comedian Jerry Seinfeld as its new commercial spokesperson -- had it not been for the fact that Microsoft has an image problem. That problem is due in large part to Windows Vista, and the public perception of it as somewhat less than the savior of modern computing that it was originally promoted to be in the early months of 2007.

As was widely reported yesterday, Microsoft is reportedly investing $300 million in a new advertising campaign starring comedian Jerry Seinfeld, and designed by the firm responsible for Burger King's popular, yet disturbing "King" ads. You may recall, the ones where ordinary people find themselves conversing with a plastic, motionless, mute Burger King statue that they find in their midst for no apparent reason.

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