Having fixed a technical error that affected the downloading of the Release Candidate (RC) for Microsoft's forthcoming Exchange Server 2010, the Redmond, Washington -based company has finally announced that the RC of the Exchange Server is now 'done' and has been made available for download.

On its blog, Microsoft said that the Exchange Server 2010 RC is "feature complete" and IT professional raring to take a go at it can now download it for free from Microsoft TechNet. The company also said that the final release can be expected by the end of the year. After the final release, Exchange 2010 would likely be priced at par or lower than the current Exchange 2007 Standard Edition, which costs $699.

Noting that its market-leading corporate e-mail server software business contributes nearly $2 billion annually; Microsoft said that the beta of Exchange 2010, which had over 10 million global testers, is apparently the largest beta ever for a Microsoft server application.

Among the new features of the Exchange 2010 RC are: support for Windows Server 2008 - 64-bit version; direct upgrading from RC to release-to-manufacturing (RTM) code, once the final version ships; and trouble-free co-existence with Exchange Server 2007 (Service Pack 2) and Exchange 2003. In addition, the Exchange Server 2010 will reportedly be much faster and more scalable than its predecessors.