Gradually, 'Longhorn' assimilated many of the important new features and technologies slated for Blackcomb, resulting in the release date being pushed back several times. It was originally expected to ship sometime late in 2003 as a minor step between Windows XP and Blackcomb, which was planned to be the company's next major operating system release.

Microsoft began work on Windows Vista, known at the time by its codename 'Longhorn', in May 2001, five months before the release of Windows XP. Main article: Development of Windows Vista Microsoft stated that it prioritized improving the security of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 above finishing Windows Vista, thus delaying its completion.

In light of this, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates announced in early 2002 a company-wide ' Trustworthy Computing initiative' which aimed to incorporate security into every aspect of software development at the company. One common criticism of Windows XP and its predecessors was their commonly exploited security vulnerabilities and overall susceptibility to malware, viruses and buffer overflows. Microsoft's primary stated objective with Windows Vista was to improve the state of security in the Windows operating system. NET Framework, allowing software developers to write applications without traditional Windows APIs. Windows Vista includes version 3.0 of the. Windows Vista aimed to increase the level of communication between machines on a home network, using peer-to-peer technology to simplify sharing files and media between computers and devices.

Windows Vista contains many changes and new features, including an updated graphical user interface and visual style dubbed Aero, a redesigned search function, multimedia tools including Windows DVD Maker, and redesigned networking, audio, print, and display sub-systems. Windows Vista was succeeded by Windows 7, which was released for retail on October 22, 2009. It was released to manufacturing on November 8, 2006, and became generally available on January 30, 2007, more than five years after the introduction of its predecessor, Windows XP, the longest time span between successive releases of Microsoft Windows at the time.

Windows Vista (codenamed Longhorn) is a major release of the Windows NT series of operating systems by Microsoft. Mainstream support ended on April 10, 2012

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