Microsoft launches Vista version of Windows

Microsoft has started the roll-out of its new operating system, Windows Vista, which at first is being made available to business customers only.

The system, a replacement for the firm's current Windows XP operating system, will not be available to home consumers until the end of January.

With Windows running on nine in 10 of the world's PCs, analysts agree the new version should be a big success.

However, Vista is two years late and its consumer launch misses Christmas. Last minute delays at Microsoft meant that computer makers would have been able to install Vista only on about half the computers that they were hoping to sell over Christmas, said Al Gillen, a Vista expert with technology consultancy IDC.

Microsoft predicts that Vista will be the fastest-selling operating system to date

Before an intimate crown of around 100 people crammed into NASDAQ's New York headquarters and at events around the globe (in Beijing, Paris, London), Microsoft officially rolled out Microsoft Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange 2007.

Billed as "A New Day for Business," the event marked Microsoft's enterprise launch of its new products and updates. A similar consumer launch is still two months away.

During a fast-paced hour-and-fifteen-minute presentation, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, together with a host of partners and Microsoft employees, explained the products' positioning and importance to business and the key pillars that they support: simplifying collaboration, finding information, protecting and managing content, and improving security and cost of ownership (and IT costs).

Office 2007 and Windows Vista are "two of the most significant releases we've ever done," noted Ballmer. The CEO also noted that while there's significant innovation in Office, Vista, and Exchange, today's launch actually comprised nearly 30 new products, which he called part of "this wave of innovation."