— PHOTO: VIVEK BENDRE

USER-FRIENDLY: (from left): Doug Hauger, Chief Operating Officer, Microsoft India, Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, and Neelam Dhavan, Managing Director, at the launch of Windows Vista and 2007 Office system in Mumbai on Tuesday.

MUMBAI: Almost six years after its last upgrade, Microsoft has finally unleashed `Vista', the new version of its ubiquitous personal computer operating system, Windows. In a launch here on Tuesday, simultaneous with similar events worldwide, the Redmond-based software leader announced India-wide availability of the consumer offerings of Vista in four versions as well as the 2007 version of its `Office' productivity suite.

The 18 international language versions of the new operating system include Hindi. Thirteen more Indian language editions, including Telugu and Marathi, are promised within a year.

Microsoft India's Chairman Ravi Venkatesan explained that over 3,000 engineers at its India Development Centre in Hyderabad had "significant involvement'' in Vista's development, particularly in portions dealing with remote access, PC backup and file system utilities. The global technical support centre in Bangalore had evaluated the product extensively and also coordinated its `beta' testing by over a million professionals worldwide.

Neelam Dhawan, Managing Director of Microsoft's Indian operation, said over five lakh Indians had participated in this testing programme for Vista, while another 3.5 lakh helped checkout Office 2007.

The four versions of Vista will be available from this week for consumers (that is, the non-enterprise sector): a starter edition that will only be available pre-loaded on entry level PCs that start at Rs. 22,000; the home basic version; the home premium for those who want to exploit the multimedia features similar to the earlier Media Center Edition and Vista Ultimate which combines the full array of home, entertainment and business-oriented features.

The features where Vista will provide a significantly improved experience, Microsoft executives said, were: an integrated desktop and Web search tool; enhanced security against spam and malware; tight parental control on what their children do on the Net — and some visual `eye candy' like video desktop background themes and 3-D aero effects where multiple windows appear to stand up on the screen, like so many see-through glass walls.

In a separate function, domestic PC maker Zenith tied up with California based Vu Technologies to launch `India's first Vista PCs'... ranging in price from Rs. 35,000 for an entry machine to Rs. 1.50 lakh for a Vista-Ultimate-based Digital Home solution complete with a 37 inch LCD TV screen.

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