Microsoft's annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference has been scheduled for May 23-25, 2006 in Seattle, Washington. The conference will be crucial for vendors preparing for the launch of Windows Vista late next year, with Windows Server "Longhorn" also expected to make an appearance.

At WinHEC 2005, Microsoft provided the first look at Longhorn in over a year and invited a group of bloggers to take an early peek at the new operating system. Next year's event will feature "the information you need to design and build great PCs, servers, and devices for the Microsoft Windows platforms of today and tomorrow," the company says.