Windows Vista Team Blog : Windows Vista, Retail Availability

Vanishing Point Trip-to-Space Winner Announced, Webcast Today at 2:30PM CST

Nick White — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 20:10:00 GMT

Today Windows Vista and AMD announced that William Temple of California, USA has won the Vanishing Point grand prize, which includes a trip to see the ultimate vista -- the earth from space courtesy of Windows Vista, AMD and Rocketplane. The team at Windows, AMD and Rocketplane are hosting a conference call and webcast at 2:30PM CST today to answer your questions on everything from Vanishing Point to space flight. Click here to join and type in meeting id 9XK464. Astronaut and Rocketplane Commander John Herrington will also be joining to answer any questions about space flight.

Will has won a great prize package including the trip to space, along with a Windows Vista-based, AMD-powered Dell desktop PC; a 24-inch widescreen monitor; a Zune™ digital media player; an Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system; three Games for Windows® game titles; a Microsoft® LifeCam VX-6000 webcam; Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007; and $50,000 cash.

Vanishing Point was a global puzzle game that played out online and in the real world to celebrate the launch of Windows Vista. Clues were delivered via spectacular events, such as a custom light show in the fountains of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, skywriting and gorgeous building projections around the world, and a fireworks finale in Seattle. You can check out the conversation tracking it here.

Vanishing Point was one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time, and the Windows Team and I enjoyed meeting some of you at the finale in Seattle. Be sure and check out the webcast, and congratulations to Will!

Ship-It Awards presented to the Product Team

Nick White — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 15:58:00 GMT

When we release a product to market at MS, tradition holds that everyone involved in building it is usually given a small gift in recognition of their efforts. These "Ship-It Awards" are usually of more sentimental value than anything else, but everyone who's received one displays it proudly in their office as a badge of honor (and often in remembrance of the sacrifices it took to get the product out the door). Senior Software Development Engineer Larry Osterman makes mention of his Ship-It Award on his blog and even includes a few photos.

The front is inspired by the Windows Vista Ultimate packaging. On the reverse is the text:

FOR ALL THE...

Delighted customers, great ideas, tough deadlines, clever solutions, lines of code, pages of specs, runs of automation, lines of text, screens of UI, missed dinners, fixed bugs, inspiring teamwork, countless iterations, courage to break the rules, time away from loved ones, times you rose to the occasion, late nights, early mornings, delayed vacations, chances you took, long meetings, short meetings, canceled meetings, killed features, features that wouldn't die, crashed machines, moments of victory, moments of defeat, coffees, doughnuts, pizzas, beers, relentless dedication, blood, sweat, and tears.

THANK YOU

To say that Larry's been around the block more than once is to vastly understate the matter. What's significant in his blogging this Ship-It Award is that in >22 years working at MS, Larry notes that what's normally a private affair this time has become a very public one here in our halls: "...there were lots of people walking around the halls showing the box off to others."

Perhaps it's because now that the challenge of building Windows Vista is behind us, people find themselves still wanting to share the glory (and relief) of the moment and relive a little bit of their part in making software history.

The Windows Vista Product Team (Devs, Testers and Program Managers) also received the final installment in their "DVD Cubes" a few weeks ago. The Cube contains DVDs of Windows Vista Beta 1, Beta 2, RC1 and now Windows Vista RTM -- all the major milestones in the Windows Vista project.

Retail launch at Midtown Manhattan Best Buy

Nick White — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:35:00 GMT

We had the chance yesterday morning to drop by the Midtown Manhattan Best Buy store to see Steve Ballmer and Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson, along with the Mason family from the Living with Windows Vista program, celebrate the launch of Windows Vista. Here, Cassidy Mason shows Steve how the family used Windows Media Center to record TV shows for playback at a later time.

Along the way, I got the chance to meet Greg de los Santos, the Midtown store's first salesperson to sell a copy of Windows Vista early Tuesday morning. After chatting with Greg for a moment (he sure knows his way around the OS), we gave him a small reward for his efforts -- a copy of his choice of versions of Windows Vista. After vacillating for some time over whether to pick the Bill Gates limited-edition signature copy of the Ultimate upgrade version, he settled on the full version of Ultimate and bounded up the stairs to complete the purchase.

Greg waits in anticipation as we check out.

You can see his excitement....

... as he meets his newest software acquisition.

When I announced to Greg and his management that he was to be awarded his choice of versions of Windows Vista, he literally fell to his knees, made double fists as if in exultation (or serious pain), and yelled "Thank you! Thank you!" Needless to say, it was great to see such excitement :)

A big thank-you to Greg for his enthusiasm for Windows Vista, and to his store's management for producing such passionate salespeople!

It's here

Nick White — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 18:40:00 GMT

Today is the day. All Editions of Windows Vista are finally available to anyone and everyone in the general public!

(Whew.)

Thank you to everyone in the community (more than 5M testers) who contributed to making this the best OS we've ever released!

And, remember that you can purchase and download Windows Vista from your desk or on the road via Windows Marketplace.

Also, it's worth mentioning that, with the release of the retail version of Windows Vista, the support for the Customer Preview Program has ended. Again, thanks to all the users who participated and provided Microsoft their valuable customer feedback.

Exclusive to Windows Vista users: Complimentary T-Mobile HotSpot access

Nick White — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 17:41:00 GMT

Check it out -- an offer for Windows Vista users only.

Take your mobile PC running Windows Vista to any North American T-Mobile HotSpot between 30th January and 30th April for a complimentary, blazing-fast broadband connection. This offer actually goes live on Friday 26th and will not receive further promotion until January 30th, but I wanted readers of this blog to be the first to know, and to take advantage :)

Visit www.skysurprise.com for program details. There you'll meet Yuri and Sergei, the cosmonauts, and to learn all about the new dance craze, "the cosmonaughty." Then turn up the volume and dance!

Exclusive: An invitation to members of our valuable windows community

Nick White — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 17:14:00 GMT

The following is an exclusive invitation to you, our community, to join us in celebrating the launch of Windows Vista on the 29th and 30th of January.

You've heard the buzz, helped customers, drove excitement and news, now it's time to celebrate! Join us for 24 hours of Windows Vista Launch Celebrations on January 29th and 30th taking place at 30 U.S. retail locations at Best Buy, Circuit City and CompUSA stores. Microsoft has partnered with HP to deliver the ultimate Windows Vista retail celebration events. Stores are rolling out the red carpet to host our Windows Vista VIP community at each location from 10pm-1am on January 29th. You also won't want to miss this party with special guest appearances, music and more. On Launch day, January 30th, retailers will be promoting Windows Vista with in-store events, prizes and promotions.

This is a great time to celebrate your contributions in making Windows Vista the most exciting and talked about OS to hit retail. The road to the Windows Vista Launch may have been long, but you have been a huge contributor to delivering a quality product; it's time to show the world the Wow Starts Now, with you as our honored guests!

With the next generation of Windows Vista PCs offering new innovations like touch screens and HD experiences, the launch event will feature some of the best PC offers of the year, star (NFL) player appearances, and a celebration atmosphere; these events are undoubtedly the best time to see, experience and buy Windows Vista!

Locations:

Atlanta
Baltimore
Boston
Buffalo
Charlotte
Chicago
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Dallas
Denver
Detroit
Green Bay
Houston
Indianapolis
Kansas City
Los Angeles
Miami
Minneapolis
Nashville
New Orleans
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Pittsburg
Richmond
San Diego
San Francisco
St. Louis
Seattle
Tampa
Washington, DC

(Here's a hint: Did you notice that almost every city listed has its own professional (American) football team?)

Here's the actual invitation, which you'll need to print out and bring with you to gain VIP entry:

Be sure to go here to find the nearest store event in your city.

As the invitation text above states, Windows Vista would not be what it is today -- the largest, most successful commercial OS launch in history -- without your contribution. Please join us as our special VIP guest as we celebrate this milestone in the history of computing.

Hope to see you there !

Counting Down to the Consumer Launch of Windows Vista

Nick White — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 19:37:00 GMT

On 30 January 2007, Microsoft will be making Windows Vista available to the world at large. This event goes by different monikers: "general availability," "GA" and "retail availability" are some of them. But no matter what it's called, lots of people -- I for one -- are looking forward to that day. As excitement builds, we've seen that some enthusiasts are marking the occasion in different ways; one to just recently hit our radar is Donavon West's design of a Windows Sidebar Gadget that counts down the days, hours and seconds until midnight of GA Day.

Donavon has created three similar versions of his gadget: one for Live.com pages, another for Windows Live Spaces, and a third for installation to the Windows Vista Sidebar.

Why not join Donavon and us in the countdown to retail availability by placing the gadget on your own website? Just add the following code snippet to your site to display the Windows Vista Countdown Gadget, just as it looks on Live.com:

<div style="position:relative;width:130px;height:142px;">

<script src="http://download.gallery.start.com/d.dll/1~1~485~4304/VistaCountdown.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

</div>

Have we ever got some exciting things planned for retail availability ... stay tuned !