At a CompUSA store in Raleigh, only about a dozen people gathered to be among the first consumers to get Vista. The low turnout wasn't surprising; even Bill Gates said the company wasn't pushing the midnight sales events for first major Windows update since 2001.

CompUSA manager Damon Didier said the midnight sales met his expectations, especially given the late hour with temperatures in the upper 20s.

"I think we'll see sales pick up throughout the rest of the week, especially on Friday and over the weekend when people have more time," Didier said.

Employees decorated the store with balloons and set up bright new displays featuring computers equipped with Vista. There was a five-second countdown over the public-address system to let customers know they could buy the software. The store also offered coffee and discounts on other items such as printers.

"I guess I'm a geek at heart," said Chad Janko, 29. "I wanted to process the whole thing myself before all the reviews surface about it."

Mike Johnson, 29, of nearby Rolesville, bought a laptop computer with the new software preinstalled.

"The biggest reason for me is the new interface. It looks so much better than XP," he said. "Apple computers have had nice graphical interfaces for some time. But it's the first time Windows has even approached that level."

In Cleveland's suburb of Brooklyn, Ohio, about 300 people braved 20 degree weather for a midnight celebration at Best Buy, which arranged free hot dogs and autographs from former Cleveland Browns player Bob Golic. About 35 Vista packages were sold just after midnight.

The store reopened at 8 a.m., but only a few braved the snow - and not everyone left with a copy.

"I want to see how many problems there are, what kinds of bugs are in it," Kathleen Calvin said. "There have been problems when softwares came out before. I just want to make sure it's something that's going to work well."

Microsoft marked the Vista launch with a series of celebrations Monday in New York complete with acrobatics and blaring music. At one, dancers clad in Microsoft colors dangled from ropes high above street level and unfurled flags to form the red, green, blue and yellow Windows logo against a building wall.

Vista went on sale in 70 countries Tuesday, along with new versions of Microsoft Exchange e-mail software and the flagship Office business suite, which includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

More than five years in the making, Vista was released for businesses Nov. 30, but the unveiling for consumers only came Tuesday. The software retails for $100 to $400, depending on the version and whether the user is upgrading from Windows XP

By: DocMemory
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