Prerelease copies of Windows Vista (formerly code-named Longhorn) have been available for more than a year and a half, and the embryonic OS is on at least its second set of feature revisions. As I write this, Vista is in beta 1. Microsoft released a Developer Preview 2 of the OS at Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2005 in September, and a public beta 2 is planned for late 2005. Although nothing slips faster that Microsoft software schedules, Vista is currently scheduled for release in mid-2006. Here's my list of the most significant updates Microsoft has made to Vista.