Long-awaited Windows Vista launches today

Five years in the making, Windows Vista launches today - Microsoft's most significant launch since Windows 95 was unveiled 11 years ago.

As of today Microsoft will start rolling out the long-awaited Vista operating system to business customers, although home users will have to wait until January to get hold of it. Also launching today are Microsoft's Exchange Server 2007 and 2007 Office System.

Key innovations in the long-awaited operating system include the new user interface and graphics engine, improved search and a new media player, as well as tighter security and eco-friendly power management features. For more details see silicon.com's Vista Cheat Sheet.

The ability to define more users as standard users rather than administrators will prove very attractive, according to analysts, by helping secure corporate networks against worms and viruses that use administrator privileges to spread on infected machines.

But for all the excitement, large companies aren't looking to upgrade to Vista right off the bat - they have a lot of testing and preparation to do.

Gartner research vice president Michael Silver said: "It will take 12 to 18 months before they roll out to large numbers of users."

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For organisations running Windows 2000 there "definitely are real reasons" that they need to move to Vista, he said - but organisation on Windows XP are likely to roll out the new operating system on new machines and leave older machines running XP until they are replaced.

However, some companies that gambled on skipping XP may find themselves forced to upgrade, as Silver points out: "Companies to some extent don't have a choice - they have to bring it in on some machines. Lots of companies tried to skip XP and the point that they are at now is that their new applications don't support Windows 2000 and they don't support Vista yet either."

Many organisations are planning to migrate through "hardware attrition" - when old PCs burn out they will buy new ones running Vista - compared to the 'forklift' style of upgrading to previous new operating systems, which entailed wholesale replacement for all Windows operating systems.

So far UK businesses are adopting a cautious approach to Windows Vista, with many citing few compelling reasons to upgrade and opting to wait until at least 2008 before moving to Vista.

Only one of silicon.com's 12-strong CIO Jury IT user panel said he planned to upgrade within the first year of Vista's release. Half said they are looking at a one- to two-year upgrade timeframe while the rest will wait two to three years.