Quest Software Inc. (Nasdaq:QSFT) today announced it has been nominated for Microsoft Corp.'s Partner of the Year Award for "The Microsoft Global ISV Partner of the Year Special Recognition Award." Winners for the 2006 Microsoft Partner Program Awards, which recognize top Microsoft Partners delivering market-leading, Microsoft-based solutions, will be announced July 12 in Boston at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference. Quest won this award in 2004.

"We are honored to be nominated for the Global ISV Partner of the Year Special Recognition Award for the fourth year in a row," said Steve Dickson, vice president, Windows management, Quest. "We closely align with Microsoft from product development to the field organization to ensure that customers are getting the most value out of their investments in Microsoft including Windows Server, Active Directory, Exchange Server and SQL Server. We continue to broaden our expertise, managing SharePoint Technologies, .NET applications, extending Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) and Systems Management Server (SMS) and to enable cross-platform integration with Unix, Linux and Java through our Vintela solutions.

Awards will be presented in a number of categories, with winners chosen from a pool of more than 1,800 entrants worldwide. The Microsoft Global ISV Partner of the Year Special Recognition Award is given to the global independent software vendor partner that has demonstrated outstanding leadership and is the most valuable global enterprise and medium-sized business partner in delivering Microsoft solutions to the two companies' mutual enterprise customers in the past year. Quest Software is nominated for this award for developing solutions that have significantly affected its enterprise customers' business.

"Each year, our partners continue to set new standards with the level of solutions they develop and implement for our mutual customers," said Eddie Amos, senior director of Developer and Platform Evangelism Group at Microsoft. "We are thrilled to recognize Quest Software as one of the partners leading the field in this category."

The Microsoft Partner Program Awards recognize Microsoft Partners that have developed and delivered exceptional Microsoft-based solutions over the past year. Multiple awards are distributed in four categories: Partner of the Year for Technology Innovation, Partner of the Year for Sales and Marketing, the Specialization Excellence Awards and the Microsoft Initiative Awards.

About Quest Software Inc.

Quest Software Inc. delivers innovative products that help organizations get more performance and productivity from their applications, databases and Windows infrastructure. Through a deep expertise in IT operations and a continued focus on what works best, Quest helps more than 18,000 customers worldwide meet higher expectations for enterprise IT. Quest Software can be found in offices around the globe and at www.quest.com.

Quest and Quest Software are registered trademarks of Quest Software Inc. The Quest Software logo and all other Quest Software product or service names and slogans are registered trademarks or trademarks of Quest Software Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.