The primary intent of the Go-Live deployments is to allow for testing in real-life applications. "Customers have told us the reason they want Go-Live releases is so they can test their applications in a live production environment," said Bixhorn.

Microsoft has positioned Windows Workflow Foundation as a platform for building software to model business processes. Windows Communication Foundation is intended to keep Microsoft at the forefront of Web services development.

"Windows Communication Foundation dramatically reduces the amount of code that developers have to write when building service-oriented applications," said Bixhorn.

The Go-Live software gives developers a head start on Vista, said Ronald Schmelzer, senior analyst at ZapThink, in an e-mail.

"Apps built with this Go-Live version of the software will run on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, bringing Vista capabilities to apps before Vista actually launches," Schmelzer said.