Vista Pre-Release Set To Self Destruct After May 31

Here's a warning to users of pre-release versions of Windows Vista: in two days, your operating system will self-destruct. It's like the cassette tape at the beginning of the "Mission: Impossible" TV shows, but in this case, it's Microsoft's policy. As reported earlier, May 31 is the last day of full functionality for Customer Preview Program versions of Vista. That includes Vista beta 2, and both release candidates. The OS will gradually shut itself down in stages, and do it in an unusual way. Starting Friday, a user can log on to the OS for two-hour sessions only. After two hours, the OS will automatically reboot, without offering a chance to save. That leaves a two-hour window to save work, transfer settings and so on to another OS. Any work not finished within that span will be lost when the machine reboots.

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