Microsoft names its price for Vista

Microsoft on Tuesday announced retail pricing for Vista, its long-delayed Windows update, and said it will broaden testing to more than 5 million people.

Last week, pricing information had been briefly posted on Microsoft's Canadian Web site.

Then on Friday, Microsoft issued Release Candidate 1 of Windows Vista, a near-final test version of the operating system.

Pricing for full retail versions of the software will be: Windows Vista Ultimate, $399 (£210); Windows Vista Business, $299; Windows Vista Home Premium, $239; and Windows Vista Home Basic, $199.

Upgrades from Windows XP are priced at Windows Vista Ultimate, $259; Windows Vista Business, $199; Windows Vista Home Premium, $159; and Windows Vista Home Basic, $99.

UK prices had not been confirmed at time of publication.

The company said it is broadening its existing Vista customer preview programme. The programme lets developers and other business users obtain pre-release code. Microsoft said it will this week expand the programme to "technology enthusiasts" so that they can test the consumer-specific features of Vista.

Current customer preview programme participants will be able to access the latest Vista test code beginning this week. Vista RC1 will post to the company's MSDN and TechNet Web sites for subscriber download this week. In addition, Microsoft says it plans to distribute RC1 DVDs to readers of a number of technology publications worldwide.

As for Vista's launch date, the timing remains unchanged, said Shanen Boettcher, general manager of Windows product management. Microsoft is shooting to wrap up development work in time to ship the operating system to large companies in November and have a mainstream launch of Vista in January, Boettcher said.