Barely two hours after thousands of beta testers around the world began to download Vista Build 5381.1 Ultimate Edition for x86, it has been re-released. Though those that were downloading can continue to do so and those that have finished it can go ahead and run that build; there are certain complications.
As we reported here, the x86 build of Vista 5381.1 turned out to be an unstaged CHK build (see linked article for definitions and explanation) compared to the FRE staged build distributed for x64 machines. Now it seems there is another factor in the mix: Microsoft Corporation has pulled down the download links to the CHK debug build for x86 and replaced it with a staged FRE x86 build. On one hand this new build comes with a staged setup which will install faster and on more systems than an unstaged build would, and it is not a debug compile and as such it will most certainly run faster and smoother than the other; yet on the other hand, not everyone is even aware that it has been re-released, and for those that are, that's two hours of downloading gone to waste. Unfortunately the new build is also more than a gigabyte larger than the first build.
We at NeoSmart Technologies personally recommend restarting your downloads (as we have done) to grab the newer file, if only because we're getting a more-or-less final look at Windows Vista Beta 2; an experience which would be far more impressing in a release build than a debug, and also because there is a modest chance that a Staged Setup Build will run on your PC while an unstaged might fail somewhere along the way, leaving you stranded and needing to download both builds in their entirety.
x86 Build 1: VISTA_5381.1_32bit_Client_Unstaged_CHK_DVD_EN.iso; at 2,296.55 MB
x86 Build 2: VISTA_5381.1_32bit_Main_Client-Staged_DVD_EN.iso; at 3,347.84 MB