Jim Allchin, co-president of the company's platform and services division, announced the delay on March 21, saying that the company wants to ensure that the operating system is solid and secure before releasing it. Later in the week, Microsoft said it will postpone the release of the consumer version of Office 2007 to keep it in line with the new Vista schedule.

Even companies with speedier Vista rollout plans said the delay in shipping the consumer version won't affect their schedules. "The Microsoft announcement does not adversely affect us," said Robert Fort, director of IT at Los Angeles-based music retailer Virgin Entertainment Group Inc.

Robert Taylor, Georgia's Fulton County CIO and director of ITVirgin has about 500 PCs serving as in-store point- of-sale terminals and kiosks running a combination of Windows 2000, Windows Embedded for Point of Service and an old IBM "green-screen" operating system. The retailer is part of Microsoft's TAP and "will continue to follow its timeline," Fort said.

Georgia's Fulton County has deployed Vista in production "on a limited basis," and "when the product is released for production by Microsoft, we will continue with our rollout to be completed throughout the enterprise as quickly as prudently possible," said Robert Taylor, CIO and director of IT, in an e-mail.

The county government is also part of TAP and has found that "Vista has been surprisingly stable," Taylor said. "The product looks very good with the enhanced security features."