Today Microsoft releases its second Community Technology Preview of Windows Vista to beta testers and subscribers to MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) and TechNet. While testing the new build over the past few days, we've noted a number of incremental changes that have appeared since the September PDC (Professional Developers' Conference) CTP, as well as a few truly significant ones.

The new CTP release, known as build 5231, provides a first glimpse of Windows Media Player 11 and additions to the Windows Security Center, including hooks for an integrated anti-spyware tool. Improvements to the Vista shell are continuing, diagnostic capabilities are growing, and Internet Explorer 7 is shaping up. There are a few skeletal new applications that don't yet have much substantive functionality: a simple contact manager, a calendar applet, and a digital photo manager called Microsoft Digital Gallery. Microsoft also tells us that build 5231 implements a variety of capabilities at the API (application programming interface) level, meaning their benefit won't become apparent to most users until applications or the shell exploit those new capabilities.

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