Your help desk will need to support both versions. But when they get the inevitable "Why is this so complicated?" question, their mantra can be that they're sorry, but that's how Microsoft set up Vista. That's right -- blame Bill Gates again.

Vista at home: Vista will come in multiple flavors. Some home-PC versions lack features that business versions have. Your decision: Let users dope out the differences on their own, or cross-train your help desk on the home version.

There's an easy way to split the difference: Buy a cheap Vista home PC for the help desk to kick the tires on. Face it -- some users will be working from home on these crippled Vista versions. The more you can help them, the more productive they'll be, and the happier they'll be with IT. And when they ask why their version of Vista is missing what they expect -- well, you know the mantra.

So there's your opportunity: When Vista rolls out, you can hobble users or help them. Just remember that if you make them do it the hard way, they'll figure out who to hate.

And it won't be Bill Gates.