Nearly a according to a survey of North American and European CIOs by Forrester Research Inc. released earlier this month. Another 27% of IT managers said they planned to deploy Vista this year or in 2010, according to the survey, which was done last August, before the economy tanked.

DeGroot, however, said that Microsoft's arguments are no different than the ones it routinely makes during every major operating system transition. However, in this economy, those reasons may not provide enough justification to get companies to step on the gas pedal for Vista.

For instance, Microsoft argues that companies will save money if they upgrade PCs en masse to Vista today and then later to Windows 7.

Even with upgrading the operating system on an existing PC, known as an "in-place OS upgrade," remains one of "the most costly and difficult projects that an IT department can take on," DeGroot said.

"A company with 1,000 employees will burn $40,000 an hour while employees twiddle their thumbs and spend two or three days getting back to work in an unfamiliar interface and rebuilding their custom desktops, so the cost can easily top $1 million just in salaries alone. Actual productivity losses (e.g., salary costs plus lost sales, customer service, etc.) may be much higher."