One of the most surprising features of Windows Home Server, the product formerly codenamed "Quattro" (and later, "Q") is how Microsoft managed to keep it a secret until it was officially unveiled in early January.

Sure, there were a few hints and a minor leak or two before Microsoft officials took the wraps off a handful of Home Server concept prototypes at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. But given the fact that Microsoft made the first beta of Windows Home Server available to anyone in the full-time Microsoft pool, starting in November 2005, wouldn't it seem like the Quattro cat would have been out of the bag far earlier?

After all, Microsoft is no Apple, when it comes to keeping products in the pipeline a secret. (Microsoft also hasn't sued bloggers to deter them from posting non-disclosure-agreement info — at least not to date, knock on wood.)

So how did Microsoft manage to keep Quattro under wraps for so long?

"We showed people we respected them," said Charlie Kindel, general manager of Windows Home Server.

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Microsoft, Windows Home Server, Codename, Quattro, Q