Development of Windows Vista occurred over the span of five years, starting in earnest in May 2001, prior to the release of Microsoft's Windows XP operating system, and continuing until November 2006.
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12 Facts About Windows Longhorn
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2.
Vista's original codename, "Windows Longhorn", was an allusion to this plan: While Whistler and Blackcomb are large ski resorts in British Columbia, Windows Longhorn is the name of a bar between the two mountains that Whistler's visitors pass to reach Blackcomb.
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3.
Gradually, Windows "Longhorn" assimilated many of the important new features and technologies slated for "Blackcomb", resulting in the release date being pushed back a few times.
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4.
Development of Windows Longhorn Vista concluded with the November 8,2006 announcement of its completion by co-president of Windows Longhorn development, Jim Allchin.
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5.
Occasional builds of Windows Longhorn were leaked onto popular file sharing networks such as IRC, BitTorrent, eDonkey and various newsgroups, and so most of what is known about builds before the first sanctioned development release of Windows Longhorn in May 2003, is derived from these builds.
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6.
One of the notable changes was that the Windows Longhorn logo was only white, not colored like all the versions of Windows Longhorn before it.
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7.
When Windows Longhorn Sidebar was enabled, the word "Start" was removed from the Start button—a development used later in Windows Longhorn Vista.
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8.
Srivastava employed a team of core architects to visually map out the entirety of the Windows Longhorn operating system, and to proactively work towards a development process that would enforce high levels of code quality, reduce interdependencies between components, and in general, "not make things worse with Vista".
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9.
The Windows Longhorn Shell has drastically changed yet again, introducing virtual folders, a new search interface, several new high-resolution icons, and a revamped Windows Longhorn Explorer interface that did away with the menus and most of the toolbar buttons that were present in previous versions.
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10.
Release notes for the build state that the Time Zone bug that plagued almost all previous builds of Windows Longhorn Vista had been patched, and quite a few issues in the Regional Settings and IME had been resolved.
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11.
However, performing an upgrade installation from Windows Longhorn XP was still slow, sometimes taking more than an hour to complete.
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12.
Windows Longhorn Vista was launched for general customer availability on January 30,2007.
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