Vista SP1 Beta 1 To Launch In Mid-July

Mary Jo Foley has just posted some interesting information about Microsoft gearing up for the imminent launch of Windows Vista SP1 Beta on ZDNet:

“Just when Microsoft had customers, partners and competitors all believing that it was going to delay the first service pack for Vista – not releasing a first beta of it until just before year-end – the company is set to deliver Beta 1 of Vista SP1 in mid-July.

Word (from various sources who asked not to be named) is Microsoft is gearing up to drop Vista SP1 some time the week of July 16. And despite what Microsoft seemingly led Google, the U.S. Department of Justice and other company watchers to believe, the final version of Vista SP1 is sounding like November 2007.”

Microsoft is expected to emphasize that SP1 is more about fixes than new features. Most of the elements of SP1 are expected to enhance or supplment features that are already part of Vista, sources said.