November 8 is the official release to manufacturing date of Microsoft’s latest operating system. A year ago Jim Allchin, the former Co-President, Platform and Services Division, who divorced from Microsoft on the same day Vista hit the shelves, being replaced by Steven Sinofsky with the role of Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, as the head of the Windows project, announced the Vista RTM saying just: “It’s time!” This of course is a mere prefiguration of “the Wow is now” slogan designed to push the operating system to general consumers. At that time Windows Vista was running on in excess of 60,000 machines over in Redmond and on a few million computers worldwide thanks to the testing milestone releases. According to statistics from Net Applications, Vista has a share of just 0.11% of the operating system market. Microsoft’s five year journey from Windows XP in 2001 had finally delivered Vista.

“And just what is this so-called RTM? It’s the major milestone where we can confidently say that Microsoft is done with Windows Vista and will be handing it off to our industry partners: PC makers, ISVs and IHVs. They in turn will continue to ramp-up in earnest now that the target is locked — for example, by refining hardware drivers — in order to complete the cycle and make Windows Vista available via retail channels on 30 January 2007. On that date Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system will be available to customers around the world”, revealed at the time Nick White, Product Manager at Microsoft working on the Windows Vista launch team.

Reduced Piracy Mode

Just days after the Vista code went gold, the first pirated versions of the operating system began emerging. Microsoft has high hopes for Vista in its constant face-off with Windows pirates. The operating system featured Volume Activation 2.0, and a revamped activation infrastructure intimately connected with the Windows Genuine Advantage antipiracy mechanism. But the Redmond company’s mitigations were taken down and Vista suffered the same faith as its predecessor Windows XP. One of the most notable releases that accompanied the operating system’s RTM was Vista BillGates pirate
edition. Still, Microsoft’s official position is that the WGA mechanism in combination with the Reduced Functionality Mode triggered into pirated copies of the operating system had worked wonders. At an apex of the piracy phenomenon focused on Vista, Alex Kochis, Senior Product Manager for Windows Genuine Advantage, promised an update to tackle the ‘timer crack’ or ’2099 crack’, a workaround designed to bypass the operating system’s activation mechanism, extending the grace period until 2099.