Microsoft Corp. is posting the final beta and first publicly available and feature-complete version of Windows Server "Longhorn," marking the final time the product will be available for testing and feedback before the long-awaited server update is available later this year.

Microsoft is making downloads of Longhorn Beta 3 available from the company's Web site, said Ward Ralston, senior technical product manager for the software. It's the first time that anyone who is interested can get their hands on the product, which has been in private beta release only until now.

It is also the first time users can get a look at the new scripting and command-line technology, Microsoft PowerShell, in the Longhorn server, he said. The technology, which allows administrators to more easily automate tasks across Windows servers on a network, was previously available as a separate add-on, but it will be built directly into Longhorn and is making its first appearance in a test version of the product.

Customers also can get a first look in Beta 3 at two new Longhorn features -- a new always-on firewall in Server Manager and an installation option called Server Core.

Server Manager in Longhorn is designed to keep the server firewall up 100% of the time, which means server administrators will have to unlock the firewall using the Server Manager console when they want to install components, he said. This allows administrators to install components needed for certain server roles, leaving anything extraneous out of the system.

The server also will intelligently know what dependencies and restraints the roles will have once installed, and it will configure the server automatically to run most effectively in those scenarios, Ralston added.

Server Core is a minimal installation option for Windows Server that installs only components for eight server roles -- out of a possible 18 -- on the server and automatically configures them for the most reliable performance. This limits the amount of code that needs to run on the server and should decrease the time needed for and the number of updates because the server will only need to be rebooted for updates related only to those roles, Ralston said.

Longhorn is due for final release sometime in the second half of the year, a time frame that was revised several times.