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Here's some insight into the confusing numbering system for Vista builds. Looks like they are working on Release Candidates and Release to Manufacturing versions at the same time so that they can collect some revenue for their coffers.

The Microsoft official responsible for releasing Windows Vista builds explained in an interview published on the Vista Team Weblog this week some of the intricacies of how the build numbering scheme for Release Candidates works. In the interview, Sven Hallauer, director of release management for Windows Vista, said the company currently has parallel build cycles in play for builds numbered 5400 through 5699 which are reserved for Release Candidates (RC). At the same time, it also has reserved builds numbered 5700 and above for Release to Manufacturing (RTM) -- the step following the last RC build and the code that will ultimately be released to customers.