Microsoft releases Windows Vista, IE 7 for XP betas

IDG News Service - As expected, Microsoft Corp. is making the first beta of its forthcoming Windows Vista operating system available today to developers.

At the same time, it plans to release a beta of Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP that adds a promised antiphishing tool to the browser, said Greg Sullivan, group product manager in Microsoft's Windows client group. The tool sends out a pop-up window warning a user if he navigates to a Web site that exhibits behavior typical of phishing sites, and it blocks access to recognized phishing sites, warning users that the sites are "known to be engaged in illegal activity," Sullivan said.

The beta version of Internet Explorer 7 included with the Windows Vista beta doesn't include the antiphishing tool, but the finished operating system will ship with it, he said.

Windows Vista beta code is being released into the hands of about 10,000 technical beta participants, which include customers, partners, home users and subscribers of Microsoft Developer Network and TechNet, Sullivan said.

Microsoft is also releasing the first beta of Windows Server, which is still code-named Longhorn, to a limited number of participants in the technical beta program. Participants include hardware manufacturers, original equipment manufacturers, system builders and independent software vendors. The Longhorn version of Windows Server is expected to be generally available in 2007, following the planned release of Windows Vista in the second half of 2006.

On Friday, Microsoft officially named the client version of Longhorn "Windows Vista" and said the beta of the product would be available by Aug. 3 (see "Update: Microsoft's Longhorn becomes Windows Vista"). Today's release of the beta is a bit ahead of that schedule, but it's in line with the company's previously stated plans to release the first beta of the operating system during the summer season in the U.S., Sullivan said.

Sullivan acknowledged that the first beta of Windows Vista doesn't have many of the flashy new changes that end users will be interested in, such as the next-generation user interface promised in Windows Vista. The new interface design is on tap for the second beta, which doesn't have an official release time frame because Microsoft will wait until it receives feedback on the first beta to announce that, he said.

Microsoft also will release another build of Windows Vista to developers at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC). That code that will likely be the result of what Microsoft internally calls integrated developer workstation releases, which will be fashioned into a so-called community technical preview, Sullivan said.

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