News
Windows XP Beta 2 Now Available
Windows 9x crept another step closer to its death when Microsoft Corp's. newest OS went into Beta 2 testing the last week of March.
Dubbed Windows XP (shorthand for "experience"), the product is meant to replace Windows 9x and Windows 2000 desktops, unifying them under a single codebase. Windows XP, which will have both consumer and business desktop versions, is built on top of NT technology, cutting all ties with DOS, which still undergirds Windows 9x and Windows Me. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, at the official unveiling of XP last Feb. 13, called XP "the most important Windows release since Windows 95." Up until the announcement, XP was code-named Whistler.
Early last month, Microsoft announced that exams would follow the release of Windows XP, but didn't specify whether there would be one, two or more exams (see http://www.mcpmag.com/news/default.asp?url=010209). In the last year, Microsoft has been following a standard formula of releasing exams roughly 45 days following the release of its software.
You can get more information and order the Windows XP beta 2 software update at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/.
-- Keith Ward, Senior Editor