Great news for MSDN Subscribers – Build 5270 is now available for download.
The December Microsoft Windows Vista Community Technology Preview (CTP) is the third in a series of early Windows Vista builds being released to an extensive technical community. The CTP program is designed to involve customers and partners in the various stages of Windows Vista development by facilitating timely and relevant feedback. Microsoft Corp. is on schedule to have the majority of Windows Vista features code-complete by the end of 2005, and the CTP program will help enable Microsoft to provide testers with a feature-complete version of the product sooner than for any previous Windows release.
The December CTP offers developers, IT professionals, and Windows enthusiasts an opportunity to review and test some of the operating system’s significant security and performance enhancements and innovations. It also showcases progress on the overall user experience and design elements in Windows Vista.
As with the previous CTPs, the December CTP is intended for use by developers, IT professionals and the technical community. Given the nature of software development and the feedback process, many of the features in this CTP will continue to evolve throughout the development cycle. End users interested in testing pre-release versions of Windows Vista should continue to wait until the beta 2 version becomes available.
I have been fortunate enough to use Office 12 beta on Windows Vista Build 5270 for a few hours today. The Vista product is more refined than earlier builds. The TIP was flawless for the short document that I wrote a MS-Word document. While the citation portion in Office 12 does not meet APA wording – APA documents use a Reference page and not Bibliography – the product was enjoyable to use. A nice APA cover page would be wonderful to include in a final release.