Fifty families from seven countries lived with Windows Vista for nearly two years as part of the largest-scale consumer research program Microsoft had ever undertaken before a Windows launch. In that time, participants say, life was good.

“Windows Vista has taken the whole concept of a computer and expanded it to something you can take out of the computer room and put in the family room,” says Thuy Shimizu, a Bellevue, Wash., resident who was asked to participate in the “Life with Windows Vista” program along with her husband, Brandon. “It’s not just an operating system; it’s a family entertainment system. I never thought that I would be taking my computer into my personal life. I’ve always associated computers with my work life. Not anymore.”

Microsoft credits the Shimizus and the other families – who were selected from focus groups and through various marketing methods – for helping design a system that is user friendly for all ages. Life with Windows Vista participants also helped identify more than 800 bugs during the two-year program, in addition to helping shape the software into what it is today by discovering and testing features that worked and didn’t work for them personally.

That feedback, says Trish Miner, research manager for the “Life with Windows Vista” program for Microsoft, was the point of their participation and critical to the development process.

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