Microsoft in slip-up over Vista service pack

For a brief time Friday, it looked as if developers were going to be able to get their hands on a test version of the first Vista service pack, which is due for final release next year.

Enthusiast site Neowin noticed a posting on Microsoft's MSDN developer site that promised developers could "Get the latest preview of Windows Vista SP1 on MSDN Subscriber Downloads." The site also said, "This new release of SP1 addresses reliability and performance issues, and provides support for new hardware and several emerging standards," according to Neowin.

That would have been a big deal, since the software has been only in limited beta testing, and not broadly available to developers outside of Microsoft. However, Microsoft said late Friday that the post was a mix-up and that no test code was released, nor was any planned to be released.

"The MSDN notice about a Windows Vista SP1 RC Preview was posted mistakenly," Microsoft said in a statement provided to CNET News.com "No code was released today and the MSDN notice has since been removed from the MSDN site."

For those keeping track, this is the second such slip-up.

Microsoft said that it does plan a release candidate version at some point, but did not give details, although it is not expected to be issued in a matter of days. The company said it is on target to finalize the service pack in the first quarter of next year.