The China Internet Network Information Center has announced its full support for Microsoft's (MSFT) Vista individual operating system.

In the past, Chinese users usually needed to input English-language characters on their browser's address column or email address column when they used Microsoft's operating systems, but with CNNIC's support and when using the new Vista operating system, users can input Chinese when they want to visit web pages or send emails to servers that accept Chinese-language email addresses.

In 2006, CNNIC's two standards related to this use of Chinese was approved as international standards by the Internet Engineering Task Force. Following that adoption, Microsoft implemented CNNIC's standard, which enables its Vista system to fully support online surfing in Chinese.

A few years ago, Microsoft had adopted, and then ceased to use, a similar system called RealNames. The RealNames Keyword system was integrated into Microsoft Internet Explorer browser software and was available for integration into the Openwave Mobile Access Gateway. Like DNS, RealNames Keywords and name services were available through a worldwide channel of registries and registrars. It allowed Chinese users to use Chinese-language domain names when surfing the Internet.