In the next few weeks, Vista users may be approached by mysterious men in shirts with little blue M’s, asking them to volunteer to see what side effects they suffer when trying out a new patch.  The beta version of service pack 1 for Vista should be out soon, although the testing will probably not be as public as the pre-release versions of Vista were.  The Inquirer points out that the actual service pack is still not due until 2008, which is a long wait for corporate customers that have no plans to switch OSs until Vista SP1 is released.
“THE BETA VERSION of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is scheduled to arrive within the next couple of weeks, according to Vole-spotters.

Posting on ZDNet, Mary Jo Foley suggests that the beta will arrive in the week of July 16, with the full release going out some time in November.

This would track with original Microsoft semi-unofficial estimates as to the timeline for a Service Pack, since Windows Server 2008 is also due to go RTM in November this year – and SP1 will almost certainly include a client update to revise the client in line with Server 08.”

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