Windows Longhorn to Arrive in 2005 "Longhorn, the next major version of Windows for desktop PCs, will debut in 2005 and will usher in a new level of graphics for PC's, Microsoft executives said Wednesday. While Microsoft plans to release "a couple of beta," or test, versions of Longhorn in 2004, the final version of the operating system won't come out commercially until 2005, said Will Poole, senior vice president of the Windows Client division at Microsoft."