Microsoft applies finishing touches to Windows XP

As expected, Microsoft Corp. on Thursday released interim Build 2481 of Windows XP to a core group of its technical beta testers.

The build is likely to be one of the last before Microsoft issues Release Candidate 1 to a far broader group of testers and Preview Program customers in the next few weeks.

The most notable feature in Build 2481 is the inclusion of Windows Messenger, the real-time communications technologies that Microsoft announced earlier this week.

Greg Sullivan, lead project manager for Windows XP, said at that time that Windows Messenger goes far beyond pure instant messaging, allowing text, chat, video, audio and telephony services.

"This is a whole new communications category. It's not just about instant messaging, it's about unlocking the entire capability of your PC and the Internet to communicate," he said.

Windows Messenger represents the unification of the communications technologies that have been in Windows for some time, Sullivan added.

Compatibility

Notes accompanying Build 2481 tell testers that the user interface in the build is pretty much finalized and unlikely to change.

In addition, the build includes two new color schemes, Metallic and Homestead, which build off of the default user interface known as Luna.

The Luna interface is less cluttered than those found in other versions of Windows. The Windows 2000 classic user interface is the nondefault option in XP.

While Build 2481 does not contain all of the hardware drivers that will ship with Windows XP, Microsoft in the notes said it did not intend to add any device support beyond that currently planned.

Some ISV and beta testers said recently that a lot of work remained to be done on application compatibility. Not only were a large number of applications yet to be tested and certified for XP, they said, but potential problems were likely with a number of existing applications, particularly those based on DOS.

Applications based on the 9x code base (Windows 95, 98 and ME), rather than on the NT base found in XP, and which do not yet work on Windows 2000, would also be troublesome, they said.

In the months leading up to the Windows 2000 launch, Microsoft also ran into problems on the certification front.

Software vendors claimed at the time that Microsoft set the testing bar too high, resulting in few applications qualifying as "certified" by the time the OS was launched in February, 2000. A Microsoft spokeswoman declined to give any details on the interim build, saying only that the company would continue working on application compatibility and device support in Windows XP until the code was released to manufacturing.

According to sources, Microsoft expects to ship RC1 (Release Candidate 1) within the next two weeks, followed by RC 2 in July, with the final code released to manufacturing in August.

Microsoft has said Windows XP will be available in retail stores on October 25. But computer makers who get the code early, could start shipping XP systems weeks before that.

-- eWEEK