Windows Vista pre-RC1 test program

Here's the text of an email I received Tuesday, August 29, 2006. I might have seen it if I checked my Hotmail more often. Oh well. Too much spam in that account.

I had originally downloaded a Beta version of Vista, but my PC wouldn't run it in a Virtual machine like I wanted to. I never got to try it, but now that the RTM version is out, I'm trying to get it for my new work PC.

Invitation to participate in Windows Vista pre-RC1 test program

We would like to invite you to help test the latest build of Windows Vista.

Thank you for participating in the Windows Vista Beta 2 Customer Preview Program (CPP). Your help is playing a critical role in improving the overall quality of what we believe is one of the most important OS advances in the history of PC computing. As a participant in the Beta 2 CPP, you will be able to download Windows Vista Release Candidate 1 (RC1) as soon as it becomes available.

In the mean time, we are inviting a limited number of CPP participants to help test a pre-RC1 build. Your timely feedback on this build will help us improve the quality of the final RC1 release that will be available to millions of customers in the coming weeks.

We are only making 100,000 downloads of this build available. As soon as we reach 100,000 downloads, the program will be closed. Participation in this program is not required for participation in the RC1 CPP. Whether or not you participate in this pre-RC1 test, we will send you another email message to alert you to the availability of the final RC1 build.

After downloading, please install and test the build as soon as possible. Most importantly, if there is a crash, hang or error, please make sure that you send the information back to us using the built-in Windows Error Reporting technology. Sending this information is essential to helping us improve the overall quality of Windows Vista, and collecting this information is the primary purpose of distributing this pre-RC1 release.

As with the original Beta 2 CPP, we remind you that this is pre-release software and you should not run this on production or mission critical PCs. Support will be limited to newsgroups, and you will have to do a clean install to move from this build to the final RC1 or RTM builds of Windows Vista.

You will be able to upgrade an existing Windows Vista Beta 2 or Windows XP installation to this build. However you will not be able to get back to your original installation after upgrading to this pre-RC1 build, you will have to do a clean install in order to get back to your previous configuration.

Installing this build requires a valid Product ID. Please use the same Product ID that was provided to you when you signed up for the Beta 2 CPP.

Thank you very much for your help in making Windows Vista great!

Sincerely,
The Microsoft Windows Vista Team