Well, the wait is finally over... Yahoo Messenger for Windows Vista is available for download. Leveraging Vista technologies such as Windows Presentation Foundation, Yahoo Messenger for Windows Vista was initially showcased at CES in January 2007. Subsequently, the Sunnyvale company only promised that the instant messenger client would hit "soon." Soon, of course, melted away into something more like "better late than never", and Yahoo has finally managed to drop a preview of Yahoo Messenger for Vista, while pushing on a whole year since the project has debuted into development.

"It's here! It's really here! We're thrilled to bring you the preview version of Yahoo! Messenger for Vista, the first Yahoo! Messenger built from the ground up for the Windows Vista operating system. This is your chance to try it out and give us your feedback in order to help make the next version even better. This is a preview version only (pre-beta), so not everything is in here that you might be used to seeing in other versions of Yahoo! Messenger," revealed Josh Jacobson, Senior Product Manager, Yahoo! Messenger for Vista.

I've installed and test driven it, and the first thing that came to mind was the fact that the 12-month gap that separated the first taste of the application and the delivery of the preview was not justifiable in the least. Almost one year later, I would still advise you to stick with Windows Live Messenger 8.5 (and even 9.0) or Yahoo Messenger 9, as Yahoo Messenger for Windows Vista still has a long way to go in terms of users experience. And I am not talking about refining, or touching up, Yahoo still has some serious hammering to do with the IM client, it is, by no means, just a question of softening a few rough corners. My biggest complaint at this time is the surges in CPU/memory usage.

One aspect that deserves a consistent amount of praises is the integration of the graphical user interface with Windows Aero. Users will really be able to see WPF, the graphics subsystem of the latest Windows client at work, and the eye candy is excellent. The ability to manage simultaneous conversations via the new tabbed capabilities is also not to be overlooked. Overall, there is an increased feel of flexibility when it comes to the options available for handling contacts and preferences. But now, Yahoo needs to also focus under the hood of the instant messaging client.

"If you are already running Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 or 9.0 on your Vista PC, you can continue to use it. Messenger for Vista will be installed to a different directory so you can launch one version or the other depending on what you need. Note that Yahoo! Messenger for Vista can only be installed on a Windows Vista operating system. Many familiar features are not in this preview: voice, webcam, chat rooms, text messaging to mobile phones (SMS), IMVironments, Audibles, plug-ins, photo sharing (though you can send photos via file transfer) and conferencing. We'll be working on many of these features and 64-bit Vista support for our next releases," Jacobson added.

Yahoo Messenger for Windows Vista is available for download here.