Microsoft quietly made Windows Vista Release Candidate 2 available for download late on Friday to technical beta testers and MSDN/TechNet subscribers.

The new build of Windows Vista offers a higher level of performance and stability as well as fixing many of the bugs in RC1, according to the Windows Vista team blog. 

Windows chief Jim Allchin posted a special announcement which read: "People asked for it and here it is, Windows Vista RC2.

"There are thousands of quality improvements since RC1. You'll probably notice improvements in performance, application compatibility, as well as fit and finish work."

The new test build (5744) has a number of improvements and updates on previous builds, and has been through daily testing processes to refine quality and performance, Microsoft said.

The company warned that this build may not have the same level of support or servicing via Windows Update as RC1, and that users may not be able to upgrade from this build to the final version of Windows Vista.

"We are just around the corner from release to manufacturing [RTM] and shipping this great product to the world. This will be the last build prior to RTM, so please keep the feedback coming so we can hit the finish line," said Allchin.

The RC2 release will be available for a limited time only from Microsoft's Windows Vista Download site.