Microsoft plans to release another CTP of Vista next quarter to millions of beta testers, followed by a Release Candidate 0 of Vista and a release to manufacturing before Christmas, said Allchin. "If there are quality issues, we would hold the product, but I don't anticipate that there will be," said Allchin, who plans to retire at the end of 2006 after Vista's release.

For business users, Vista includes smart handwriting recognition that learns not only a user's handwriting style but also the types of words commonly written. Its pickiest beta user, said Allchin, is Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.

"Bill is an extremely avid user of a tablet PC. That's how he takes notes and organizes stuff," Allchin said. "He's not only pretty demanding, his handwriting is not the best."

Another feature allows Vista users in a meeting to quickly find each other wirelessly so they can collaborate on shared projects. That allows, for example, simultaneous editing of Office documents, with drag-and-drop copying of files from one Vista desktop to another.

The "slideshow" feature depends on notebook manufacturers embedding small LCD screens like used on mobile phones -- along with a five-button keypad for navigation underneath it. That feature would also require software to download selected data from the user's hard drive and store it on flash memory. That way, users could check their phone number contact list, read their latest synced e-mails or choose songs they want to hear, without having to boot up their system.