Microsoft: More Than 250 Products Ready For Vista

At Digital Life 2006, the Redmond, Wash., software giant said more than 250 new PCs, peripherals and software applications have been optimized and certified for Vista or have been proven compatible with Vista and will carry a "Works with Vista" label.

One of Microsoft's most significant steps — which has yet to be formally announced — is its plan to make available beginning Oct. 26 an Express Upgrade coupon, which will entitle buyers to free or discounted upgrades to Vista, sources said. OEMs and system builders are expected to have those new WinXP SKUs in house beginning Oct 15.

Microsoft would not confirm that news, but announced this week that the imminent availability of Windows Vista Capable PCs and "Verified for Vista" peripherals and applications ensures that the operating system's delay won't spoil the holiday shopping season.

To whet the appetite of prospective buyers of Vista, and Windows XP users, Microsoft also announced Thursday that its long-awaited Internet Explorer 7 browser upgrade will be available for download within two weeks and that Windows Media Player 11, which will also be integrated in Vista, will be available as a standalone application download on Oct 24.

Consumers are expected to be the first adopters of Vista. For example, Vista Capable PCs that are certified to run the forthcoming Vista Home Premium Edition, for example, will be available on retail shelves for the holiday season and will be marked as Premium Ready PCs.

Peripherals for gamers and power users that exploit unique capabilities of Vista such as its Aero user interface, including NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards, Logitech's Cordless Desktop MX 3200 Laser and InterVideo's WinDVD and WinDVD Creator, will also be available later this quarter.

Other partners readying Verified for Vista products in time for the first quarter launch include Attachmate, Belkin, Computer Associates, Corel, D-Link Systems, HP, Lexmark, Logitech, SanDisk, Seagate, Symantec, Trend Micro and Viewsonic, Microsoft said.

But Microsoft also sought this week to assure system builders and solution providers that there will be plenty of Vista Capable PCs and Verified for Vista software applications and peripherals available for their business customers in the fourth quarter.

To that end, Microsoft announced this week that it will kick off a 23-city road tour with partner Intel on Oct. 24 to train and prepare system builders about Vista, Office 2007 and Intel's Core 2 Duo processors. The road show will end on Dec 14.