It’s taken a few weeks, but Amazon.com has finally put up a searchable, fully indexed copy of Windows Vista Inside Out.

I encourage you to compare this book to any other Windows Vista book on the market by using this feature, which lets you examine the table of contents, flip through the index, read a full search for any word or phrase, and read 3 or 4 pages at a time. Click the Search Inside link on Amazon’s product page (just belowe the cover image) to get started

If you already own the book, you don’t have to go to Amazon. A CD bound into the back of every copy includes the full text of the book in PDF format. Open it in Acrobat Reader or Acrobat and use its search tools to find any word or phrase, whether it’s in the printed index or not.

I’ve heard from several people who pre-ordered Windows Vista Inside Out that they’ve received notice from Amazon.com that the book was delayed and might not be available for several weeks. Fortunately, this isn’t true.

As of today, January 27, the “Availability” text on Amazon’s ordering page says: 

Note: This item is not immediately available to ship. (Usually ships within 6 to 12 days.)

I checked with my publisher and learned that the books should be in Amazon’s warehouse early next week. They’ll be checked in and shipped out immediately, going first to those who pre-ordered. I’m also told that Amazon has already placed a reorder, because the initial sales were higher than they expected.

It’s frustrating to see other Windows Vista books on Amazon’s virtual shelves already when ours isn’t there yet. Those other authors got there first by delivering their manuscripts before Windows Vista had been finalized. That might be an acceptable strategy for a book aimed at novices, but we know from experience that it’s a recipe for disaster when you’re trying to deliver detailed information for a technically sophisticated audience. Microsoft was making significant changes to Windows Vista even after its so-called final release candidate. Some of those changes were cosmetic (new icons, for instance), but a handful involved changes to the way that important advanced features of Windows Vista works.

We did tons of research on those earlier beta releases, but for many chapters in Windows Vista Inside Out, we didn’t even begin writing until we received the actual RTM code. We spent more than one month after RTM writing new chapters, rewriting earlier ones, snapping new screen shots, and – most importantly – fact-checking. That caused many a sleepless night for us and for the production team at Microsoft Press, but we believe the results will be worth it.

So, if you’re awaiting your copy, it’ll be there soon.

This report by Todd Bishop in the Seattle P-I appeared a few weeks ago, but I just noticed it. I had heard the news from other sources, and I’m glad to see it officially confirmed here:

Microsoft … is aiming to integrate all of Windows Vista’s planned features into the preliminary version of the program by early next year, said Amitabh Srivastava, corporate vice president in the Windows Core Operating System division.

Such a step is significant because it lets software development teams focus on fixing bugs in established features, rather than making new features.

Users of the preliminary version “will have a feature-complete Windows Vista sooner in their hands than any previous Windows release,” Srivastava said in a conference call Tuesday.

It’s one in a series of engineering changes that the company has instituted in an attempt to create a greater level of stability and security in Windows Vista. Previous versions of the operating system have routinely been criticized on both fronts.

When we were working on the original edition of Windows XP Inside Out back in early 2001, the constant flurry of changes to core features drove us crazy. As I recall, there were significant changes even between so-called release candidates, one of which was significant enough that we had to rewrite a chapter at the last minute to get the details right.

Everything I’ve seen so far suggests that Microsoft really has changed its engineering processes. That bodes extremely well for the initial release of Windows Vista. It also means that we might have an easier time writing Windows Vista Inside Out.