Michael D said:
RC2 was never a part of the CPP.
RC2 most definitely was part of the CPP.
But it was limited to a specific number of CPP members (first 200,000
downloads). It was not widely advertised, but it was available to all CPP
members who got there in time to grab it before the threshold was hit. Of
course, technical beta testers had access to it as well as earlier and
later builds.
Personally, I think RC2 should have replaced RC1 for testing since it was
such a bit improvement and really gave a good indication of RTM
performance and compatibility for those looking to code for Vista final. I
don't know why RC1 is still available[1] when it's not a good
representation of the final product. Perhaps Microsoft wants to limit use
of RC2 since it's fairly stable, but again since it's time-bombed, I don't
see why it makes any difference.
1 - available until November 30 2006.