Windows Vista Premium editions of Windows 7. Windows Vista Windows Vista is an operating system that was produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs and media center PCs. Development was completed on November 8, 2006, and over the following three months, it was released in stages to computer hardware and software manufacturers, business customers and retail channels. On January 30, 2007, it was released worldwide and was made available for purchase and download from the Windows Marketplace. The release of Windows Vista came more than five years after the introduction of its predecessor,
Management features new to Windows Vista also install updates to an offline Windows image, including updates, boot-critical device drivers, and language packs. Windows Vista introduced Component-Based Servicing (CBS) as an architecture for installation and servicing. The deployment of Windows Vista uses a hardware-independent image, the Windows Imaging Format (WIM). The image file contains the necessary bits of the operating system, and its contents are copied "as is" to the target system. Other system specific software, such as device drivers and other applications, are installed and configured afterwards. This reduces the time taken for installation of Windows Vista. Corporations can author their own image files (using the