Microsoft recently hit a severe bump on the road towards RTM (release to manufacturing) for Windows Vista. As of today, the bump has been ironed out. The software giant, however, will no longer arrive at RTM on October 25. The source of the delay was a nasty bug in build 5824 that caused horrific damages to upgrades from Windows XP. Microsoft finally fixed the problem last Friday with an internal build number 5840. No functional changes have been made, although new wallpapers and icons have been included in this latest build.
According to an internal timetable, Vista can still ship and meet its November and January launch, if RTM has arrived by November 8. The bad news is that every day closer to November 8 will kill off another language-specific version for the January launch. Mark November 8 on your calendars. On that Wednesday, either Vista will have already gone final or will be just out the door.