Status of the CMS Experiment

This talk provides an overview of many facets of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment, which was commissioned and ready for first beams in September 2008. Muons from beam splash, beam halo, and cosmic rays have provided valuable data for alignment and calibration, and for testing numerous aspects of offline software and computing. The first maintenance cycle is complete, and while eagerly anticipating for first LHC collisions, we also recall the CMS collaboration's physics studies based on simulated data to remind us of the exciting possibilities in the near future.