Microsoft releases Windows Vista SP1 to beta

Microsoft announced today, on the official Vista blog, that the Windows Vista SP1 beta has been released to a private set of beta testers. Yep, private, sorry guys (although who wants to bet how long it will be before it leaks?). The blog entry says, in part:

Today we release the Beta of windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) to a private group of Beta testers via connect.microsoft.com. Brandon over on the Windows Experience blog has installed and regularly uses SP1 on all of his machines (as do I) and discusses the more notable elements of it. We'll review some of the changes made in SP1 later this week on the blog; what’s more, our VP of Product Management, Mike Nash, answers questions about Windows Vista and SP1 in a video on Channel9. Meanwhile, I invite you to read the SP1 white paper we published last month.

As you may recall, Microsoft officially announced the beta at the end of August, saying beta testing would begin in a few weeks -- and here we are.