Three of the most important products in Microsoft history are ready to enter the market

After several setbacks, the world's largest software company is in the last test stage of a multiyear, multibillion-dollar mission to create three of the most important products in its history. This week, Microsoft said the second and final test versions of both Windows Vista and Office 2007 were ready. The company also has a new test version of its next-generation server operating system, called Longhorn Server.

Office 2007 -- the productivity software that includes word processing, spreadsheet and PowerPoint applications -- will be released by the end of the year, Antoine Leblond, vice-president of Office program management, said in an interview yesterday. The new version of Office will be optimized for machines running the
Vista operating system.

Vista is targeted for release in January and Longhorn for the end of next year. But Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, added a new wrinkle at a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday, saying
Vista could be delayed "a few weeks. . . ". Every delay is significant because the multibillion-dollar Windows franchise is so large that it drives global demand for personal computer hardware and other software.

Vista is the first new Windows operating system for PCs in five years, and Office 2007 has been in development for three years. The challenge for the company today is not only to iron out the last wrinkles of the new software, but to convince the world that it needs to invest time and money in a new operating system and another version of Office productivity software.