The first release candidate for Microsoft Internet Explorer 8, released last month, addressed a number of technical behavioral issues that, according to IE8 Program Manager Herman Ng yesterday, included some serious crashes and system hangs. That's normal for even a public beta like IE8 Beta 2, and the new Crash Recovery feature in RC1 addresses 94% of these "reliability problems," Ng said, albeit with what could be for many testers a very well-used safety net.

But what about Windows 7 beta testers? The IE8 release candidates currently available are for Windows Vista and Windows XP, separately. Microsoft decided it would be a good idea to address their concerns as well, so yesterday, it begain issuing a "reliability update" for its version of IE8. This doesn't make its IE8 a "release candidate for Win7," though it does roll up the various fixes implemented in the Vista and XP RC versions.

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It shouldn't surprise many testers that Microsoft has shrewdly closed the upgrade channel for users who will -- probably sooner this year than later -- be making the switch to Windows 7. Many who had chosen to steer clear of Windows Vista and hang on to Windows XP -- by all rights, a decent operating system, at least for Service Pack 3 users -- are pondering the nightmare scenario of having to upgrade to and validate (which usually means, pay for) both Vista and Windows 7, if it so happens that Windows 7 proves to be desirable or simply necessary.

This led us to thinking: Windows Vista can run without being purchased and activated, albeit for a limited time (usually 30 days). During that time, it behaves as though it were a fully operational trial edition (except for the Ultimate SKU, where several of the "Extras" aren't available except after validating). But it doesn't take a month to install an operating system; so what if a valid XP user could simply borrow the promotional edition of Vista, if you will, to make the skip over to Windows 7?

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What really, really looks like a release candidate for Windows Vista Service Pack 2 -- which first entered beta in December -- is officially being called an "update" this afternoon, after Microsoft declined to give it a more formal title.

A Microsoft spokesperson kinda, sorta confirmed to Betanews this afternoon the release of "an update to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 SP2 testers, in an effort to gain additional feedback." The company appears to be officially declining to call it a release candidate, although Ars Technica's Emil Protalinski unearthed evidence yesterday that this is exactly what it is.

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Though the likelihood of Microsoft's prevailing actually looks worse than it did last week, if it ends up losing, it might not be much after the judge says plaintiffs failed to prove its actions harmed a plurality.

When Microsoft decided to present consumer editions of Windows Vista with multiple versions, some of which lacked the very features the company advertised as defining the product, was it with the willful intent to defraud the public? An internal e-mail from then-president Jim Allchin to his colleagues suggests he was indeed afraid that the multiple versions could lead to consumer confusion and frustration...but that memo, made public during the discovery phase of the "Vista-capable" class-action case in Washington state district court, also appears to indicate a lack of willfulness on the part of at least one of the company's senior executives to deceive the public.

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PC makers are working on both netbooks and small desktop systems using Ion, but the first Ion PC, expected by this summer, will probably be a desktop model, an Nvidia spokesperson said today.

"Given that we just introduced Ion is December, and that PC design cycles are usually 6 to 12 months, it will take some time for Ion designs to come to market. We do expect the first Ion-based systems to hit by summer, if not earlier," said Ken Brown, PR manager for platforms, in an e-mail to Betanews.

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After Microsoft ended the Windows 7 Beta 1 downloads this week, reports of the appearance of a new leaked build quickly began to roll in. Users who didn't get a chance to download Beta 1 are now turning to BitTorrent sites to get the newer, leaked release.

Though reportedly "nothing major," the 7022 build is dated January 15, and includes Internet Explorer 8 RC 1. Windows 7 Beta 1 was build 7000.

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In Microsoft's ongoing effort to alleviate users' discomfort with Windows Vista's security nags, the company may be re-introducing a potential powder keg of new problems, as researchers continue to discover.

In his continuing investigation of the UAC bypasses being tested for Windows 7, developer Rafael Rivera points out another potentially serious problem: As developer Leo Davidson noted in a recent blog post, some binaries in Windows 7 are given the ability to present XML-based manifests of themselves that give themselves a privilege called autoelevate.

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A number of key details surrounding Microsoft's announcement yesterday on Windows 7 versions were left up in the air, and now spokespersons are working to bring them down to earth.

A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to Betanews this afternoon that Windows 7 Home Basic -- the version of the operating system that would have reduced "experience" features, comparable to Vista Home Basic -- will not be available to retail customers in the US, Canada, and Western Europe. But Win7 Starter Edition -- which was at one time touted as the company's emerging markets version -- will be available through retail channels.

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There will be a client version of Windows 7 geared for everyday consumers, and another client version for businesses other than those that would normally purchase volume licenses. The reasons why are growing fewer in number.

The official explanation for Microsoft's choice of product SKUs for Windows 7 later this year -- which follows an almost identical pattern to the current breakdown for Windows Vista -- could be more befuddling than the existing explanation for Vista. Yesterday's prepared Q&A with Windows General Manager Mike Ybarra states in great detail that his company's choices give consumers a broad array of choices, while at the same time acknowledging that there's only one choice they should make anyway.

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In what appears to be a deadly serious effort to expedite the rollout of its next operating systems, Microsoft has opened some of its developer support tools to a broader audience of partners.

One of the major shortcomings of Windows Vista that Microsoft has quietly, though plainly, acknowledged in recent months concerned the company's relative inability to engage partners in the development process. With a respectably long development cycle, there were too many third parties that complained that they couldn't get their drivers to work right, well after the operating system had already launched.

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Guests of recent Microsoft seminars and conferences who received copies of Windows Vista Ultimate will be delighted to know the Web site for registering their copies and receiving their product keys, is now fully operational.

In Betanews tests this morning, the registration site did require us to fill out a brief survey, which was understandable and not at all out of the ordinary. Upon entering our valid promotional code, which we received with a Vista Ultimate giveaway during a recent conference, we did immediately receive a product registration key via e-mail.

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Though the fellows sounding the warning today are the best in the business, it didn't take a lot of know-how to develop a proof-of-concept that the new User Access Control panel can be disabled by VBScript.

Windows 7 is still in the public beta process, and will be for some months to come. The purpose of true beta testing is to isolate and identify serious problems (we should know). So it's to any researcher's credit that a potentially threatening problem be brought into the open prior to Microsoft finalizing the code for everyday use.

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A representative for Microsoft told Betanews Monday evening that a site intended to enable recipients of promotional copies of Windows Vista Ultimate -- folks who are guests at Microsoft-hosted seminars and conferences, for instance -- to register and activate their copies, will be reinstated later this week.

Guests who received copies of Vista can still install them, for the meantime, though without the all-important product keys, they'll time out after 30 days. Promotional copies are sent with special promotional codes inside, which recipients are asked to enter on the company's promotional Web site. But that site was built to go offline on December 31, even though many folks received their copies after that date.

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It's hard to complain when someone offers you his top-of-the-line operating system for free. But it's hard not to complain when you're all ready to install it and you discover, surprise, it may not be free after all. That's the situation facing perhaps hundreds of recent recipients of Windows Vista Ultimate SP1, as gifts for attending the company's MSDN seminar tours.

To ensure that recipients register their copies and only use them once, Microsoft printed a promotional code inside the jacket, which is not the usual product key. By visiting the Web site www.registerwindowsvistasp1.com and entering the promotional code, recipients are given the full product key, and that way they will also be registered with Microsoft. Perhaps as part of a plan instituted months earlier, Microsoft set the Web site to discontinue operations after December 31, 2008.

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Download Windows 7 Beta from Fileforum now (or at least try).

Huge public turnout online for a beta package that flirts with the 3 GB mark, forced Microsoft Friday afternoon to suspend distribution of its Windows 7 beta.

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