Live at the Windows Vista launch event

Alright, so we're reporting to you live from the big Windows Vista launch; you might not stand in the freezing cold for Vista, but we did for the big launch event here in NYC. It's bones-cold, but we're hoping they're gonna let us all in shortly to see Bill give another speech about the real awesome power of Windows, so stay tuned!

4:13PM EST - Defective by Design people are here protesting the DRM of it all, god love 'em! Ok, we're in!

4:25PM - On stage: three really lame drumming fools, probably rejects from Stomp. No Bill yet, obviously.

They say "The 'Wow' Starts Now", but as far as we can tell, they're half an hour behind schedule. Which is fine, since our fingers are still warming up. It's getting worse, one of the (white) drummer dudes is beat-boxing "Windows, uh uh Vista!" Cringeworthy.

4:42 - The show will begin in TEN minutes (i.e. at about 5PM EST.)

"Our program will begin shortly. Please move into the theater." We can see some indie rock in silhouette behind a screen. They're playing a weak pop punk "What a Wonderful World" but still not sure who they are.

4:54 - Bill gates is walking on stage. "Well, it all started 24 years ago in NYC, Microsoft committed to GUI. Machines could barely keep up, took us two more years to get it all together. That was our bet, that not only could we do fantastic things with Windows, but that it would be the platform for our partners. Two years later, we could say with Windows 95 that our vision had succeeded -- 32 bit computing drove GUI into mainstream.

4:56 - "Windows became majority of all software sold, with more manufacturers building more Windows machines... now 12 years later, it's a much different industry. There were a fifth as many PCs as there are today. digital lifestyle is taken seriously. We take all these things for granted now -- Everything's becoming digital. It's a platform for people to be creative, that is a central element that allows it all to thrive. Windows 95 key to its era, and Vista key to its era."

4:59 - "Homes are expecting to have integration, as things go digital, people have high expectations now. Windows has this exciting central position. It's been 12 years since we brought Windows and Office together..." Breakthroughs in Office and Windows. "What kinds of innovation? Features that make it all easier: search, office ribbon..." his list goes on.

5:00 - "Safer: a lot here... as the internet has become mainstream, we're making sure that info is protected. That software isn't working against you. Anti-phishing, anti-spyware, parental controls. Entertainment: some neat games, photo galleries, DVD Maker... Better connected: simpler to find WiFi resources, extensions for RSS, XML capability, lots of APIs there. Defintiely a platform for innovation. With Vista you can upgrade your machine."

5:04 - Mike Sievert is now on stage, and is showing off tagging in Photo Gallery. DVD burning built in. Sievert is showing off a quick DVD of photos and videos. Now showing off new Office 2007. Sievert is now looking at Games for Windows, playing Uno for Vista, showing off Live capabilities, pretty much what Gates showed off at his CES keynote.

5:12 - Still demoing... it took a few tries to get that Uno game going. Sievert talking about parental controls. He's setting time limits, blocking access at night, setting what kind of ESRB rated games he wants his son to be able to play. Activity reports: these will basically rat out your kids if they're looking at porn.

5:13 - Now on to Media Center, talking about how Media Center Extender is built into every Xbox 360. Playing a clip from The Office. Sounds like Apple and Microsoft finally have something in common! (Oh, the band that played was Angels and Airwaves.).

5:15 - Now Sievert is showing a photo slideshow on Media Center Extender. Talking about Windows Vista Ultimate Extra: Dreamscene (i.e. full motion video desktop, something else shown at CES). Sievert is off, they're playing a video for Vista. "Turn on the 'wow'".

5:17 - BALLMER! He looks pumped! You're always in for a borderline-insane treat when he gets on stage. "THE BIGGEST LAUNCH IN SOFTWARE HISTORY!"

"We're incredibly excited about the product, about what it means for the PC industry. We hit the ground running." Broadest release ever, 70 countries, 39,000 retail outlets, 1000s of OEMs. But how many developers, huh?

5:19 - "The biggest-impact release we've ever done. How many developers, IT people?" HA! Oh no he didn't... "Over a million in Europe, two million in US." Yes! He did!

"It's the best release we've ever made in support; 1.5 million devices that are supported, 31,000 drivers, 2,500 certified products... Vista will have broadest support for hardware of any OS, ever. If you think back to 1995, PC was solitary, the internet wasn't developed, not many people with cellphones or digital cameras, 12 years later, at the center, the product that brings it all together really is the PC running Windows -- particularly Windows Vista."

5:23 - "We have a lot of partners and 5 million beta testers; today we want to have you experience and hear from many of our partners about hardware innovations." Playing a video of a bunch of OEMs...

5:28 - Bill and Steve on stage together now. Welcoming Kevin Rollins from Dell on stage. Bill hands him an first edition of Vista. Next: Sean Maloney from Intel. He gets a first edition too. CEO of Toshiba gets his first edition as well. Hector Ruiz, Chairman and CEO of AMD gets his. Then Tom Bradley from HP. Steve: "I want to thank all of these partners." OEMs and Steve walk off.

5:29 - Bill now talking about Office 2007 and Vista: "We wanted to thank our employees for their hard work. I personally thank Jim Allchin for all his work and his commitment to Vista's quality. We've had 5 million people download betas of Vista and Office 2007; it's the best tested and highest quality release we've ever had. We were able to take observations, see what people were having trouble with, and use that to tune the interface."

"The amount of time has been phenomenal, thanks to everyone who participated in the beta testing. A really special part of the customer feedback was a new program about how these products work in the home. Let's see what families say about what they want. We went to 50 families in seven different countries, gave them a beta 1 product, and spent a lot of time with them, hearing their frustrations, what they liked to do. Features like DVD burning came directly out of this." Now showing a video about these families.

5:37 - Video just ended, Bill and Steve are on with "The Regan Family", a "Windows Vista Family". This is super awkward. They're giving another very first edition to them. They're "officially" launching Vista now, the kids are going to push the "Wow starts now" button. All hell breaks loose! Or at least super loud music and lots of footage of Times Square on the screens behind them.

Looks like they're bringing Angels and Airwaves back out to play some music, guess that's it for Bill and Steve?

5:41 - The Regan kids are off stage, but now they're on the video screen, talking about being on stage with Bill Gates and how they launched Vista and Office 2007. "Now, Angels and AIrwaves!" Alright, looks like that's it! We'll see everybody in 2013 for the launch of Windows Radical: Totally Extreme Edition.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 4:34PM]

that bus looks hot

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 4:53PM]

Get its number

[agreenbhm Posted Jan 29th 2007 4:48PM]

What do you have to do to attend the launch event? Did you have to be invited, pay, or was it open to the general public? Also, what are you guys getting there? Free copies of Vista or Office?

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 30th 2007 12:55AM]

hmm why? , Vista Ultimate Final have been out in torrents for a few weeks and it can be activated.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 4:47PM]

Looks boring as heck. I'm going to one of these tomorrow.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 4:48PM]

Watch it live, go to microsft homepage and you'll see a link below, with bill gate's picture.
Its streaming live pretty good.

[JonnyK429 Posted Jan 29th 2007 5:02PM]

http://www.microsoft.com/events/executives/billgates.mspx

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 4:50PM]

Dont you mean 5PM EST? It is going to be 2PM PST.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 4:53PM]

Its on right now, just started!

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 6:01PM]

wow, the band sucks!

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 5:03PM]

http://www.microsoft.com/events/executives/billgates.mspx

500k, 220k, 100k available. streaming video is good, sound not as good.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 5:03PM]

Ok... I never thought I would say this but Microsoft did a god job on vista. For windows its pretty damn nice. Also office 2007 is pretty damn cool. Its like vista but in a office form. Sooo... kudos to MS

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 5:22PM]

The Wow starts.... with a broken IE7 in Vista that chokes like turd when trying to open their own stream for the Vista event.

I had to go back to the MS page in FIREFOX to get the stream to open. Nice one Bill.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 9th 2007 3:27AM]

"Windows, uh uh Vista!"


effing ridiculous.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 5:16PM]

cool rocket

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 5:20PM]

Are they playing angels and airwaves because its similar to vista? some big headed idiot making loads of fuss about something that is actually a miserable failure? Well, maybe even vista isnt *that* bad...

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 5:22PM]

But he's not wearing any clothes!!!!!!
Doesn't anyone notice???

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 5:40PM]

Haha, they just showed a Macbook Pro in the clip they're playing :D

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 5:26PM]

Windows and Microsoft are garbage.

Go Apple!

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 5:27PM]

i want a vista award

[Oldtaku Posted Jan 29th 2007 5:28PM]

> Vista will have broadest support for hardware of any OS, ever.

Gee, that's amazing when you consider the number of devices I have that XP supports that Vista doesn't.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 8:03PM]

I'm sure that since the OFFICIAL FULL RELEASE of Vista TODAY, the drivers will be available from the various hardware manufacturers.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 5:29PM]

is it me or does that look a lot like a jobs keynote...

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 5:30PM]

The guys from Defective by Design rule!

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 5:32PM]

So, Ballmer is saying that Windows is the digital hub? Didn't Steve plant that flag in OS X over 5 years ago? I guess the "Wow" has more to do with how unbelievably late MS is to the table with their "innovation". Wake me up when they introduce something new and useful.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 5:39PM]

Those Defective By Design guys need to be thrown in the East River. They're a bunch of brain dead sheeple.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 5:43PM]

"Terry Mele @ Jan 29th 2007 5:26PM
Windows and Microsoft are garbage.

Go Apple!"

yer the reason people don't switch. When people tell you what OS you use sucks then you tend to ignore them and defend it. No need to be an ass.....yer just creating more windows lovers. Let them figure it out on their own.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 6:32PM]

"So, Ballmer is saying that Windows is the digital hub? Didn't Steve plant that flag in OS X over 5 years ago? I guess the "Wow" has more to do with how unbelievably late MS is to the table with their "innovation". Wake me up when they introduce something new and useful."

Steve certainly did. That's why I love using OS X media center edition, and streaming it to all of my digital extenders throughout the house, automatically connecting and storing content on a centralized home server with no fuss, and native support for scores of personal media devices.

Oh wait, you only get all of that with MS products.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 5:44PM]

If OSX was supposed to be the end all Digital Hub, how come my HTPC is streaming everything to my TV and XBox360 through Windows MCE? From what I can tell iTV or AppleTV or whatever is going to suck balls, the Mac Minis do as well, underpowered and lacking storage. And since it is time to upgrade my Digital Studio anyway, I was thinking that fancy HP Touchsmart would be cool running Vista Home Premium could handle Photoshop nicely with that big ol' drawing screen and stream out to a separate monitor for extended desktop support.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 5:47PM]

So this is what happens when you let your two lame old uncles launch an operating system?

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 7:22PM]

I was invited being a partner (blah!). When I went to the Office 2007 party everyone in line was talking about how much they despised Microsoft.

[mvergeldedios Posted Jan 29th 2007 6:20PM]

"Joe @ Jan 29th 2007 5:32PM

So, Ballmer is saying that Windows is the digital hub? Didn't Steve plant that flag in OS X over 5 years ago? I guess the "Wow" has more to do with how unbelievably late MS is to the table with their "innovation". Wake me up when they introduce something new and useful."

Haha. Yeah, you go on and use OS X as your media hub, I doubt you have it hooked up to your TV anyway. It's not the fact that Microsoft is 'late,' it's the fact that now millions of people will finally be able to enjoy the benefits of a more enjoyable OS experience. Front Row on a computer monitor, let alone a big screen TV, does not really sound like a nice alternative to my Windows Media Center PC already hooked up in my living room.

If I were you, I'd keep 'sleeping.'

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 5:59PM]

Some screens of this event: http://pecet.i365.pl/vista/

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 6th 2007 10:37AM]

for all you who hate widows and love to bash and hate. Please Please just shut up and go by an apple. And when you find out that a computer is a computer and they all hang up and crash etc. no matter what they are or who makes them, then take pride that you spent all that money and think to yourself I am so glade I have an apple. And MS sucks. but please just go get a mac and shut up already. I love and hate both my macs and my pcs equally myself.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 7:58PM]

I love and hate my Mac.

But I just hate my PC.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 6:38PM]

Boycott Vista

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 6:51PM]

The first copy sold happened in New Zealand at 12.01am NZ time (NZ is 18 hours ahead of west coast US time) and I sold the first copy..... I've got the pics too

[saq Posted Jan 29th 2007 7:05PM]

We are a Microsoft Gold Partner at work and we did the local Vista Launch event and got the Vista Van down. They had some HP TC4400s showing off Vista Tablet which is VERY nice. Some Vista Media Center stuff connected to HT receivers and plasmas, and some home integration control stuff too.
The Vista Van is interesting, but not a whole lot different than the Microsoft Across America 2006 van.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 7:13PM]

Nice Aqua button with under that Windows flag... very retro Mac... but I guess that's what they're going for with Vista, right? Ha!

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2007 8:20PM]

Wooooooo! A program that runs other programs! I'm so excited, I could just shut my eyes and make snoring sounds!

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 30th 2007 4:17PM]

Vista is near defective by design......I personally am a member of defective by design and have participated in protests, but I think that we have no HUGE need to protest OSs, I mean, that is what the FSF is for, they handle protesting because there isnt source code nor is it free! We need to focus on DRM. They are near the breaking point, and just a tad more, and we will win! I dont think that we should use ipods, or the zune, because both of them harbor cripple-ware (no wma on ipod, and no alterations of aac, you have to convert it back!)

We know that the hardware can handle it, that isnt the problem, the problem is that they cant! They just want us to support their format!

[CaptCaveman Posted Jan 29th 2007 11:55PM]

Looking closer at woman in the first picture I can see that is her coat behind her. But at first glance I thought someone had caught on film the re-emergence of Roseanne Roseannadanna.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 30th 2007 12:11AM]

The "Wow" starts when? Did I miss it? Halo 3 for Windows? What was it? Is it over already?

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 30th 2007 12:59AM]

They sent out invites to beta testers with NYC area addresses, but registration spots filled up quickly.

I have a question about the goody bag. What's in the big green box with the Vista logo and the words "start here"? It's not Vista, because that's included in the plastic case. I don't want to take off the shrinkwrap in case it's something I don't need but has eBay value.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 31st 2007 2:04AM]

under an hour to launch a product 5 years in the making? a buggy piece of drm'd windows?


steve jobs>bill gate$

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 30th 2007 4:41AM]

lame

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 30th 2007 2:11AM]

Does anyone know the name of the girl that was DJing at this event toward the end?

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 30th 2007 4:21AM]

Well the Green bag is a limited-edition series of 5000 units. Mine's #3945 of 5000.
Here's the contents:

1) Windows Vista Story Book
2) Windows Vista Start Boutton Mousepad
3) Windows Vista Media DVD
4) A Belkin USB-to-USB Easy Transfer Cable
5) Windows Live USB Key (64MB)
6) Microsoft Office Trial Card
7) SanDisk Cruzo Micro - 2GB with ReadyBoost
8) T-mobile DayPass
9) Windows MarketPlace Info Card
10)Window Vista Magazine
11) and Gamefor Windows Title (Flight Simulator)

There you have it!

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 30th 2007 10:37AM]

I continue to laugh at all of you. YOu can celebrate all you want, but you're still at least a year behind. I think its great that you're celebrating the innovations of Mac OSX, but you're a little late, and honestly I don't see why you think these things are new.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 30th 2007 10:40AM]

I'm kinda sad I missed this one. I didn't have much going on either.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 30th 2007 12:07PM]

Hope you have a good time. Quite frankly the Vista launch is making me yawn. I am not a Apple fanboy but for some reason Apple events just seem more exciting even if they aren't.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 31st 2007 5:32AM]

wwwwwwwwwwwwooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 2nd 2007 2:43PM]

Seeing all this makes me puke! I'm happy I have not used any Microsoft products since 1998!

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 3rd 2007 11:57AM]

To all those who loves rotten Apple, can you tell why only 3% people worldwide uses Mac users where 95% people use Windows? It's no wonder you guys are too jealous about your single digit percentage. Do you think Windows users really care about what some punks are saying filled with jealousy & arrogance? In your dreams!