I'm sure that you are counting every second until Windows Vista will be available to the general public. If you don't have an MSDN Premium Subscription and cannot acquire the operating system via volume licensing - I'm going to ignore pirated copies of Windows Vista as a viable alternative - you have to wait for January 30, 2007 to get your hands on the OS.

And as anticipation keeps on building up, you need a constant reminder of how time flies when you're waiting for Vista. One second at a time. "This gadget displays a countdown to the launch of Windows Vista on January 30, 2007. Available as both a web gadget for Live.com and Windows Live Spaces and as a Windows Vista Sidebar gadget," reads the description of the product.

For this Donavon West, Microsoft MVP has made available the Windows Vista Countdown gadget, a free widget designed to integrate seamlessly with the Windows Vista Sidebar, on Live.com, or to be embedded in an MSN Space. At the time of this article, there were still 68 days, 13 hours, 38 minutes and 51 seconds until the release of Vista, as you can see in the adjacent image.