Microsoft’s website is announcing a launch press conference by CEO Steve Ballmer to ease Windows Vista into the world. It will be celebrated, they say, by Ballmer ringing the Nasdaq bell to open the exchange today — 20 minutes away as I write.

The website says :

NEW YORK CITY — Nov. 29, 2006 —

• What: Microsoft Corp. will host a news conference and live webcast to announce the availability of the Windows Vista™ operating system, the 2007 Microsoft® Office system and Exchange Server 2007 for business customers with volume license agreements. Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer will celebrate this historic product launch, which coincides with Microsoft’s 20th year as a publicly traded company, by ringing the bell to open the NASDAQ market.

• Who: Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, Chris Liddell, CFO of Microsoft, and executives from Microsoft customer and industry partner companies

• Where: NASDAQ MarketSite event at Times Square in New York, 43rd St. and Broadway; a live webcast of the news conference will be available.

• When: The news conference and webcast will begin at 10:35 a.m. EST (7:35 a.m. PST) on Thursday, Nov. 30.

Go Vista!

Authorized Niveus dealers get early access to Windows Vista. Just one of those interesting press releases I found today.

Milpitas, CA – November 21, 2006 – Niveus Media, an award-winning designer and manufacturer of digital entertainment media centers, has announced the launch of Get Ready. A Windows Vista Early Adopter program intended to provide Niveus’ Authorized Dealers with the knowledge needed to install and support Windows Vista, prior to its scheduled January 30, 2007 launch date, Niveus’ program also provides dealers the opportunity to showcase Vista’s increased functionality within media center solutions.

“We’re very excited to be offering our valued dealer network the ability to familiarize themselves, as well as their customers, with Windows Vista today; without waiting until general availability in January 2007” said Brian Paper, VP of Marketing and co-Founder of Niveus Media. “Our dealers are selling products today that will be installed months from now. This program not only allows them to gain technical expertise and installation experience with Vista but also allows them to demonstrate this next generation platform in their showrooms.”

Lora Heiny has started up a list of Vista Mobility features and here are some of them :

* Handwriting recognition
* Handwriting personalization training
* Windows SideShow
* Meeting Space
* Common location for battery settings

Some Windows Vista Mobility Features that I also found out are :

*ReadyBoost – Let’s face it mobile PCs tend to pack a bit less grunt than their deskbound brothers. Not only does ReadyBoost improve the performance by servicing most of the random reads off the flash card – anything that reduces the number of disk accesses can only do good things for battery life.

*BitLocker – I’ve never done it but it seems an alarming number of laptops are left in taxis. Whole volume encryption provided by BitLocker will protect your locally stored data when it is in transit. Which is great because…

*Offline files! They finally work in Vista. Some of the improvements include:

* All file types are synchronised (unlike XP which would skip certain file types)

* It is lots less intrusive

* Reads are serviced from the local copy when connected – unlike XP which would read and write the remote copy when connected with a huge performance hit.

* Encrypted by default – so even if you are not using BitLocker there is some protection.

* Only changes are in a file are synced from the client to the server, greatly reducing the amount of replication traffic. (note – changes server side are copied in full)

*Streamlined Networking, dial-up and VPN configuration.

*Network profiles – different services are available under the Domain-based, work, home and public network profiles.

I submit a few bugs to Microsoft, they give me a free copy of Windows Vista Ultimate. Sweet! I’ll add that to my existing copy of Windows Vista RTM! Aint it nice to get free stuff when Microsoft products are so expensive.

In fact, it seems that any invited beta tester (who logged in to Microsoft Connect) who submitted a bug got a free copy. Unfortunately, beta testers who were part of the broader Customer Preview Program (CPP) don’t get a free copy (which sucks, but as someone who was a beta tester for Office 2007, submitted bugs and got squat, I know how you feel).