A display in Building 3 -- the home of the Windows marketing team -- highlights Windows Vista. Microsoft makes extensive use of ads within its corporate walls to energise employees about new product releases.
Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com
Workers gather inside the 'shiproom' on Friday, to make sure that there is nothing that should stand in the way of Vista's release.
Credit: Microsoft
Microsoft test manager Paul Donnelly looks at one of the many machines he has running Vista. As the release of Vista has drawn closer, Donnelly has added more test machines to his office. Last week, that number totalled nine.
By having many different setups, some with rarely used configurations, Donnelly hopes he will encounter problems before a customer does.
Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com
James Pickell, who oversees the Windows build lab, is responsible for cranking out daily releases of Vista. Servers go to work each day at 7pm, with the goal of having a new release ready for testing by early afternoon the next day.
Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com
Mike Kirby stands by some of the machines Microsoft uses to test each day's build of Vista for compatibility. The company has written roughly 750,000 lines of code that are used to test anywhere from 800 to 1,200 programs a day, to make sure they work well with the new Windows.
Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com
Microsoft's testing labs used to have a lot more people in them, according to those who oversee the efforts. These days, much of the testing is done through automated scripts, though people are still needed to investigate any bugs that are found.
Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com
Dave Wascha opens one of several cabinets where Microsoft keeps its supply of third-party programs to test for Vista compatibility. The company tries out each day's build with roughly 1,000 applications.
Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com
This is the lounge inside Microsoft's Platform Adoption Center, which is better known inside Microsoft as the 'high-touch' lab. Outside companies come to the lab to test their products for Vista-readiness.
When they aren't compiling code or fixing bugs, guests can play Xbox 360 games or try their hand at darts.
Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com
Here is another display inside Building 3 that touts Vista. Microsoft's marketing blitz will soon shift outside Redmond, with the company expected to spend millions of dollars to make Vista's launch the biggest thing since Windows 95.
Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com
Visit reviews.cnet.co.uk for in-depth reviews of many more products
