SP2 for Vista, WS2K8 to enter beta Wednesday, will support Blu-ray

With Microsoft picking up the pace in both the development and marketing of Windows 7, it's also finding itself moving ahead with the next amendment package for Vista not too long after the release of SP1.

In an early piece of news that we had expected to hear on Monday, Microsoft will release the first beta editions of Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista to private testers on Wednesday, October 29. Those testers will be among the first, according to a blog post from Windows 7 corporate VP Mike Nash this afternoon, to test burning data directly to Blu-ray Discs using only the Vista OS.

"Windows Vista SP2 Beta contains previously released fixes focused on addressing specific reliability, performance, and compatibility issues," Nash wrote this morning. "We expect Windows Vista SP2 will retain compatibility with applications that run on Windows Vista and Windows Vista SP1 and are written using public APIs. Because we've adopted a single serviceability model, these improvements are integrated into a single service pack covering both Windows Vista (client) and Windows Server 2008 (server) versions. This should also minimize deployment and testing complexity for our customers."

Other features Nash listed include support for the Bluetooth 2.1 specification, which was formally adopted in August 2007. This could enable new notebook computers to support near-field communication (NFC), which lets devices situated very near to one another to share data at wire-like speeds.

Windows Search 4.0 will be added to the mix, although that's already been available separately. Also, a feature that was originally created for Windows XP Professional SP2, and that was omitted from both Vista RTM and SP1 despite announcements to the contrary, will finally make its re-appearance in Vista SP2: Called Windows Connect Now, it's a way to quickly deploy a profile for devices to be added to one's secure wireless network.

While Nash specifically mentioned Vista SP2's ability to record data to Blu-ray, he did not say whether a revised Windows Media Player would play Blu-ray movie discs. What also isn't known yet is whether SP2 will handle User Account Control differently than SP1, in response to folks who've complained about the propensity of warning messages they receive. These are features we may learn more (or less) about next week during our week-long coverage of Microsoft's annual PDC conference in Los Angeles.