Windows Vista to launch 30 January

"The development work is done. Now the process begins for PC manufacturers and software developers to finalise their products and applications," said Jim Allchin, Microsoft's co-president of the platform and Services Division in a confernce call.

Windows Vista will be available in 18 languages at launch. An additional 18 languages are set for release within 100 days after 30 January.

The operating system will be unveiled to businesses on 30 November and released to volume licensing customers "on or before" that date.

Allchin said that security was at the top of software's feature list. Windows Vista is the first Microsoft product to go through the company's Security Development Lifecycle that Microsoft unveiled in 2003. The security programme included outside code and penetration testing that Allchin quantified as the " largest effort even done."

"I hope that this operating system will be remembered for the huge progress that we've made with security," said Allchin.

Windows Vista is expected to be bundled with new consumer PCs from the launch date. Industry analysts meanwhile have given conservative projections about adoption in the enterprise market.

Gartner last year projected that enterprises will take at least one year to test all their applications and systems for compatibility issues before they start rolling out the software on production systems.

Allchin nontheless was bullish about the expected adoption rate for the forthcoming operating system which he typified as fast and immediate.

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