October 15, 2008: The Real Kill-off Date Of Vista Sp1 Pre-release Builds

October 15, 2008: the Real Kill-Off Date of Vista SP1 Pre-Release Builds

Microsoft confirmed that there is still some life left into the pre-release versions of Windows Vista Service Pack 1.

Traditionally, all development milestones for Microsoft products, such as Beta and Release Candidate builds, designed for test-driving, are time bombed. This means that testers can only play around with them until the expiration date. And this is where the tricky part comes in, as far as the Beta and RC versions of Vista SP1 are concerned - namely, two completely different expiration dates.

Theoretically, all Windows Vista SP1 prerelease builds have already expired. Practically, this is only valid for the evaluation expiration date which was April 7, 2008 for the Beta and June 30, 2008 for the Release Candidates. However, beyond the evaluation expiration date, there is the license expiration date, namely July 15, 2008 for Vista SP1 Beta and October 15, 2008 for the RCs.

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