Vista, Office Biz Launch Set for Nov. 30

Microsoft will just barely make its November deadline for the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows Vista, announcing an event November 30 in New York City to launch both the next-generation operating system and Office 2007.

A select number of journalists have received an invitation to the "New Day For Business Event," to take place at the Nasdaq stock market and featuring Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. In addition, Ballmer is expected to talk about the new version of Exchange, although that would release in December.

Both Windows Vista and Office 2007 have seen their share of delays. Vista was originally set to release before the holiday season, however the company delayed the final release for consumers until 2007 in March, although businesses were slated to receive the code this month.

A later announcement pushed back the Office release from October until late in the year, due to similar delays in finishing up the code.

The simultaneous release of Office and Windows marks the first time in a decade that the two products would debut at the same time. The last time this occurred was Windows 95 and Office 95, and the Vista launch has been billed by Microsoft as a similar leap forward in technology.