Windows Server 2008 will release to manufacturing in February after all, Microsoft has confirmed. Until now, the company has been cagey about the new operating system's release date, only saying that it would release sometime in the first quarter of 2008.

The release, Microsoft promises, will come in February, on or before the February 27th launch event Microsoft is hosting in Los Angeles to celebrate the nearly concurrent releases of Visual Studio 2008, which came out in November, Windows Server 2008, and SQL Server 2008, which is on track to be released in the second quarter of this year. Microsoft has begun using the tagline "heroes happen here" for the launch.

Windows Server 2008 brings virtualization directly to the Microsoft's server OS for the first time in the form of the Hyper-V hypervisor, which won't be released in its final form until six months after Windows Server is out. Other important new features in Windows Server include: Server Core, a slimmed down installation option that lets businesses install only those features they need to run the server in a specific role; command-line scripting with PowerShell, a new version of the .Net Framework, a re-vamped Internet Information Services, and Network Access Protection.

The operating system is now in "escrow," a phase where the final test passes are being done on the operating system and any changes aren't taken lightly. For example, Microsoft's internal IT department recently reported a memory bug related to printing that Jim Dubois, GM of Microsoft IT, called a "show stopper;" that one's getting fixed, while other minor bugs might not be just yet.

Within a few weeks, according to Bill Laing, general manager of Windows Server development, Windows Server will enter its final stage before release; a stage Microsoft informally calls "break glass in case of emergency." At that point, the software will be only a week or two away from release to manufacturing and changes are almost unthinkable, Laing said.