As part of ACT 5.0, Microsoft is also creating an online community where, among other things, it will maintain a list of software that has been certified as meeting Microsoft's standards for Vista compatibility, Boetcher said.

About 800 applications are on the initial list 'with more pouring in every week,' he said. 'There are many applications that aren't yet on the list that will still work on Vista.'

The list was not online as of late Monday, though Microsoft promised it would be up soon. Boetcher said the certification, though not done by Microsoft itself but provided by third-party organizations, nevertheless sets a 'high bar' for Vista compatibility.

Microsoft also officially released its tools for large corporate customers, including its Volume Activation Management Tool and Key Management Service for Windows Server 2003.

With Volume Activation 2.0, Microsoft has significantly tightened Vista to prevent piracy. Formerly, companies could use the same volume key to activate many or even all of the Windows PCs in their network. As a result, those keys were vulnerable to theft and abuse by outside software pirates.