"So, is the Windows SDK available now (27nth of September 2006) the final one? Or is it just a CTP release?"

No. That is the Sept CTP, which will almost certainly be our final pre-RTM Windows SDK build. We are driving for our RTM release at this point. Therefore you are still working with pre-release bits.

Most of our efforts at this point are to test for final bugs and doing a security pass on the content in the SDK. For instance, we just approved a bug today that has to do with text display when the user is using full contrast black. Our bug count is dropping every day, and different components of the SDK are planning to be ZBB soon.

I hope you'll understand that I can't post our target go-live date. There is so much that's still variable in our world that we don't want to announce a date that external events will make it hard for us to hit. But I'll keep you posted. As soon as I'm allowed to announce something, I will. :-)