Microsoft has just delivered a preliminary release candidate for Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) to testers. The company will also offer another public preview next month, even if some tech sites said that Vista SP2 had been pushed back a month. Microsoft is not interested in feature feedback.

It looks like the company will release a full-fledged release candidate to the public during the week of February 16-20, followed by a release-to-manufacturing build sometime in the first half of the second calendar quarter. However, there are many Windows users that are not interested in this release, and that’s because they only care about the future Windows 7.

 

Analysts say that service packs always matter, and that’s because they make it more efficient to update PCs, they increase the chances that people do deploy fixes and patches.

 

In related news, a prestigious Washington DC university has stopped students and faculty from using the trial version of Microsoft’s new Windows 7 operating system on school computers, as installing any beta version of this software is extremely risky, according to the warning from the university’s IT group.

 

Microsoft advisories say the beta version of Windows 7 could disable antivirus software and cause printers, video cards and other hardware components to function incorrectly. It’s clear for everyone that Microsoft needs the OS to be a hit. For now, it’s so popular that Microsoft was recently forced to remove limits on the number of copies available for download.

 

The company recently announced that Windows sales dropped 8%, as more customers turned to Linux-powered netbooks and Macs. Microsoft also announced it would lay off 5,000 full-time employees in order to cover the sales slump and other challenges.