How do you get to beta test this?

[Mr. Dee]

So... what you really mean is that you downloaded the publically available CTP version and were not an actual beta tester.. rightt? If you were in the actual beta program, you should have been filing bugs via connect.

How do you know "a lot of bugs" were resolved as a result of the CTP program and not the actual closed beta program? The CTPs are largely just a marketing gimmick.

CTPs were not released to the Public, milestone builds such as BETA 2 (5384), RC1 (5600) and RC2 (5744) were. Do you remember testing the following builds: 5219, 5231, 5270, 5308, 5381, etc? There were eleven of these builds not made available to the general public. The need for CTPs for Vista was essential because private testers were getting bored with the same old build. It became especially unproductive filing bugs that were already resolved in a later build. CTPs essentially gave the tester progress updates and help to quickly find and resolve new problems in addition to incorporating new features that testers could test for regressions.

[Linkinfamous]

CTPs were not released to the Public, milestone builds such as BETA 2 (5384), RC1 (5600) and RC2 (5744) were. Do you remember testing the following builds: 5219, 5231, 5270, 5308, 5381, etc? There were eleven of these builds not made available to the general public. The need for CTPs for Vista was essential because private testers were getting bored with the same old build. It became especially unproductive filing bugs that were already resolved in a later build. CTPs essentially gave the tester progress updates and help to quickly find and resolve new problems in addition to incorporating new features that testers could test for regressions.

I recall receiving 5270 in the mail for something or other to do with Vista, but was never in the Connect program for it.

[#Michael]

I recall receiving 5270 in the mail for something or other to do with Vista, but was never in the Connect program for it.

It was actually build 5270.1. There was a select group of testers that were doing some side work for MS trying to nail down some bugs.