By Michael Cherry [bio]
Posted: Nov. 21, 2005

Contributing Analysts: Chris Alliegro and Greg DeMichillie

The first beta of Windows Vista (formerly code-named Longhorn) gives customers and partners their first real chance to examine the improved security and substantially improved graphics, messaging, and workflow capabilities of the next Windows client OS. Although Vista will still change substantially before the final release, which is scheduled for the second half of 2006, customers need to decide how to evaluate the new OS, and who in their organization should begin the evaluation.

This report summarizes planned Windows Vista features, including improvements of particular interest to large organizations. In particular it outlines three major new components of Windows Vista—a new graphics engine called the Windows Presentation Foundation (formerly "Avalon"), the Windows Communications Foundation (formerly "Indigo") for building Web services, and the Windows Workflow Foundation for enabling workflow within Vista applications—and explains why developers might want to begin deciding how to incorporate them in their applications. Finally it looks at Vista's schedule and the steps Microsoft may need to take to meet that schedule.