OneNote Beta 2 Technical Refresh now available

Just a quick note to let you all know that if you are using beta 2 of OneNote, you can download the new tech refresh here. Note that this is *not* a single click update. Read the instructions on the page before installing or you will regret it.

This refresh represents about 4 months of bug fixing and stabilization, and is near-final code. You *really* should get it if you are running beta 2 already on Windows XP. You more or less *must* get the update if you are moving to Vista RC1. Installation should be painless (but follow the instructions!). It is a patch that runs and then you just keep working with no loss of data or anything to migrate. 

You'll get asked to install the updated Windows Desktop search component if you want to keep using search-related features in OneNote. The new WDS version released about 2 weeks ago is a huge improvement over the beta version that OneNote beta 2 used - you will find the most annoying issues are gone, including the fact that WDS 3.0 now includes its UI again (much like WDS 2.6) so you can search your desktop too!

Please note that B2TR is only available as a (free, I think) *patch*. That means you need to already have the matching 2007 Office beta 2 product to install it. (e.g. if you have only beta 2 of OneNote, you can patch just that. But you need to patch all the beta 2 products you have installed - B2 and B2TR 2007 products cannot coexist)

Also, since there are now roughly 7 zillion beta 2 users, the powers that be decided a few weeks ago to start recovering the cost of supporting the petabytes of downloads by charging new beta 2 users $1.50 per download. This isn't much (half a latte) but it is not zero so be aware of that. They do not make the price clear until several screens through the registration process. If you are not an existing Beta 2 user and can't spring the $1.50, you need to wait for the final release.

Final release is still scheduled for the fall (for customers who just get the CD/DVD or access to downloads such as corporations and institutions) with "retail availability" in early 2007 (i.e. in boxes in stores)

As far as new features in beta 2TR, there are a few, such as the ability to see changes in pages made by time or whether you've read them or not, and the blogging integration with Word 2007 more or less works out of the box. I will provide more details when I find out where they are listed (remember I've been away... and for me its hard to remember what beta 2 looked like)