Sights and Sounds from the Windows Vista Launch Event in NYC

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Bill Gates and the gang officially launched Windows Vista at an event in Times Square New York this evening. Following are some of the sights and sounds of that event.

The Vista Bus (view large image)

Instead of having Rolling Stones kick off the launch event with &quot;Start it Up&quot; like they did with Windows XP, it was a lesser known (but much younger) group Angels and Airwaves singing &quot;What a Wonderful World&quot; cover. Implying that Vista will make our world more wonderful?

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And of course the first speaker of the night was Bill Gates doing what'll probably be the last OS kickoff before he leaves Microsoft next year. He got more of a rockstar welcoming than the rockstars that had just been on the stage though:

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Bill talked about the effort that went into developing Vista, the new features and security it will give people (anti-phishing, parental controls, improved firewall), improved graphical interface, ability to edit and create media easily, better search tools and he also talked about Office 2007 and the &quot;ribbon&quot; innovation. He talked about the vendor support Microsoft has received and the thousands of drivers that had been rewritten to support Vista at launch.

A bunch of OEMs had their Vista wares on display (view large image)

After Bill came Microsoft VP Mike Sievert to demo some Windows tools and show how he could play UNO with his son in Seattle who was using an X-Box -- this demonstration almost didn't work -- too bad, it's always fun to get a failed demo or bluescreen. Watch as Mike starts to sweat and &quot;umm&quot; and &quot;ahh&quot; pretty bad before the UNO demo finally works out:

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Next came Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in a fairly ugly red sweater. He was pretty pumped as usual, and kind of hoarse. He touted the fact Vista would be launching in 70 languages and sold in 39,000 retail outlets. Basically saying that this launch is really big.

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After Ballmer was done talking they introduced a bunch of CEOs such as Kevin Rollins of Dell, Tom Bradley of HP, Hector Ruiz of AMD and Sean Maloney of Intel. No fights broke out among the adversary's though. Ballmer gave each of the CEO partners first edition copies of Windows Vista Ultimate. They all looked thrilled:

Ballmer and Gates giving out free Windows Vista Ultimate to guys that make millions and can afford it anyway (view large image)

After this they brought out this family called the Regans who have apparently been testing Vista as a family together for Microsoft. It was kind of odd, it's a family with 3 kids and their job tonight was to push the actual button that &quot;launches Vista&quot;. Which translated to a bunch of advertisements showing up on Times Square for Office 2007 and Windows Vista. Anyway, here's the kids hands pushing the button:

Regan kids hands push a virtual screen button to launch Vista (view large image)

and this happens on Times Square...

Office 2007 ad on Times Square display (view large image)

Microsoft thanks Asus on Times Square board (view large image)

And so Vista is officially launched, you can buy it in stores starting tomorrow morning (although many retailers jumped the gun) and just about all major manufacturers are now selling Windows Vista loaded notebooks. For Vista related questions about upgrading your notebook or buying a notebook with Windows Vista, just ask questions in our forums. To see some existing notebooks for sale with Windows Vista check out this article.

 

 

Did they thank a lot of computer companies, or just Asus? Still, its pretty significant.

Welcome Vista! Great info abaxter.

 

Wow..thanks for sharing and glad to see there is even a Vista Bus

 

wow, too bad I missed that.. I had almost paused my evening commute home to walk around Times square tonight..almost.. I had no clue that was going on.. what a city! oh well, I won't cry tonight.. OSXI on the other hand.. a different matter altogether =P

 

Whatever they do, they'll never be as cool as Jobs.

 

Very cool Andrew, I'll bet it was a lot more exciting in person.

I think the real question people need to ask themselves regarding whether or not they should upgrade to Vista is "Will Windows Vista make me any more productive?"

 

They thanked them all, here's the same board with Toshiba on it!

 

Is it just me, or does the Vista bus look like its got an "Aero" look to it?

 

Very very nice coverage andrew
Did you manage to pickup any free VISTA copies for us NBR addicts eh?

 

thanx for images and videos

 

We want free Vista coupons for NBR members!

Wow pretty impressive that bus. And I guess it is pretty cool to see the world's richest man... Welcome Vista.

Charlie

 

I tried asking Bill about that

I will confess to getting one free copy of Windows Vista Ultimate, you can see everything they gave out free to attendants here:



http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/software/vista-launch-party-schwag-bag-add-it-up-232387.php