Microsoft has delivered a beta of Vista Service Pack 2 to select hardware and software partners according to sources close to Microsoft.
Last week the company put a place holder online for information about Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista Service Pack 2. In it Microsoft acknowledges the existence of the beta and claims "No formal product support is available from Microsoft for this beta product".
According to All about Microsoft writer Mary Jo Foley the company will deliver SP2 before the highly anticipated Windows 7 release rumoured in the second half of next year.
It is widely expected that Hyper-V will be included with Vista SP2 alongside the usual OS improvements and hot fixes that a service pack brings.
Microsoft could reveal further information about Vista SP2 at the company"s professional developers conference (PDC) next month.