With the crucial Beta 1 release delayed two weeks to late October, Microsoft has released an interim build of the next version of Windows 2000 to testers for evaluation. Whistler build 2267 was released late Tuesday, offering small improvements to the previous alpha build, but no major new features. And in a bid to prevent piracy, Microsoft has instituted a new policy for testers where beta builds of Whistler are now downloaded or installed live over the Web using Microsoft Passport validation.

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