Several features of Longhorn planned that were actually shipped include the glass replicating Aero theme (which followed the Slate and Jade themes from earlier builds), along with the Windows Sidebar - although this was shipped as a standalone utility where as most builds (at least in pre-reset) shipped this as part of explorer.exe. This combined with Microsoft's trustworthy computing initiatives caused the reset.

Features were being written into the OS at an alarming rate with a significant lack of QA or vision of true requirement. The reset occurred as Microsoft's development staff had lost focus on the project as a whole and what was required to be done in order to bring it to market.

Development on the OS started in May 2001 and went through two unique development cycles separated by a development reset in 2004. Development of Windows Vista concluded with the Novemannouncement of its completion by co-president of Windows development, Jim Allchin.Windows Longhorn was the pre-release codename for Windows Vista and was the successor to Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 (built from NT 5.2 codebase). Between September 2005 and October 2006, Microsoft released regular Community Technology Previews (CTP) to beta testers and two release candidates to the general public. Some previously announced features, such as WinFS and NGSCB, were dropped or postponed.Īfter 'Longhorn' was named Windows Vista in mid-2005, an unprecedented beta-test program was started which involved hundreds of thousands of volunteers and companies.

'Longhorn' development started afresh, building on the Windows Server 2003 code-base, and re-incorporating only the features that would be intended for an actual operating system release. Faced with ongoing delays and concerns about feature creep, Microsoft announced on August 27, 2004, that it was making significant changes. Many of Microsoft's developers were also re-tasked with improving the security of Windows XP. 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. Vista's original codename, 'Longhorn', was an allusion to this plan: While Whistler and Blackcomb are large ski resorts in British Columbia, Longhorn is the name of a bar between the two mountains that Whistler's visitors pass to reach Blackcomb. Microsoft originally expected to ship the new version sometime late in 2003 as a minor step between Windows XP (codenamed 'Whistler') and the next planned major release of Windows, code-named 'Blackcomb'.

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