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With Jim Allchin teetering towards retirement, Microsoft finally shipped Windows Vista after several more delays in 2006.

In mid-2005, Microsoft rebranded Longhorn as Windows Vista and set out to deliver monthly builds ahead of its late 2006 release.

In the years since Steve Jobs had returned to Apple, he had rarely missed an opportunity to mock Microsoft or Windows.

Despite the perpetual Longhorn delays, Microsoft decided in early 2004 to forego a new version of Windows XP to bridge the gap.

In August 2004, Microsoft quietly reset Longhorn development and started over with a new codebase. The next year didn’t go very well.

Readers will remember Todd Wanke as the guy who ran Microsoft's War Room for Windows Server 2003. He came back for Windows XP SP2.

In May 2004, I interviewed Bob Muglia, Microsoft senior vice president of the Windows Server Division, about the Windows Server roadmap.

With Longhorn delayed yet again, Microsoft started working to bring some of its core security features to Windows XP and Server 2003.

In January 2004, Joseph Jones and I interviewed Hillel Cooperman and Tjeerd Hoek, two of the key figures involved in the design of Longhorn.

In 2004, Microsoft finally realized the inevitable: Longhorn wasn’t just running late, it was impossible. And now it needed a Plan B.

For developers, it was a unique pleasure seeing Don Box and Chris Anderson write Longhorn code live during the PDC 2003 keynote.

Jim Allchin’s PDC 2003 keynote, called “a lap around Longhorn,” focused on the nuts and bolts of Longhorn app development.

At 8:00 am on October 27, 2003, Microsoft opened the doors to Hall A at the Los Angeles Convention Center, and a melee ensued.

The Longhorn leaks and rumors continued into 2003. But the longer the schedule was pushed out, the more excited enthusiasts became.

In February 2003, I had the chance to interview Microsoft senior vice president Brian Valentine about Windows Server 2003.

Tensions ran high in January 2003 as Microsoft built Windows .NET Server 2003 each day, moving inexorably towards the shipping release.

In researching the Longhorn-era WinFX technologies, it occurred to me that I needed to take a step back and touch on an important, related topic.

In this sidebar, I look back on the five Tablet PCs that I traveled with for seven weeks while I hosted the Microsoft Mobility Tour.

Windows had a busy 2002 between Windows XP Service Pack 1 and the new Media Center and Tablet PC Editions. But enthusiasts had other concerns.

Bill Gates fervently believed that Tablet PCs and their stylus-based handwriting capabilities together represented the future of portable computing.

With the weight of Microsoft’s security problems on his shoulders, Bill Gates delivered a CES 2002 keynote that focused on the future, not the past.

With the Windows XP launch behind it, Microsoft turned its attention to the future. But that future would be derailed in ways no one predicted.

Microsoft wasn’t the only company prepping a major new desktop OS for 2001. Steve Jobs had returned to Apple, and he had a plan.

While Windows XP didn’t deliver much in the way of .NET functionality, Microsoft had other plans to push its web services vision forward.

Microsoft originally planned to kick off the Windows XP era with its biggest launch event since Windows 95. But it wasn’t meant to be.

In February 2001, I headed to Redmond, Washington for the Whistler Desktop Beta 2 Reviewers Workshop. And boy, was I in for a surprise.

On January 6, 2001, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates delivered the keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.