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It means that while Microsoft will keep its promise to ship Vista in 2006, it will only appear in offices with IT staff deploying the new operating system in the party season.

The company says that the delay is due to continuing efforts to improve the security of the operating system.

In a statement Jim Allchin, co-president for the Platforms & Services Division at Microsoft said 'The industry requires greater lead time to deliver Windows Vista on new PCs during holiday. We

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must optimise for the industry, so we've decided to separate business and consumer availability.'

Putting back the consumer versions of Vista until the New Year means that Microsoft stands to miss out on the lucrative Christmas buying season and will have a harder job trying to get customers to part with their money and buy upgrades in the early part of 2007.

However, it is not only Microsoft that will feel the pain. There is no doubt that many PC sales in the consumer market are likely to be deferred or even cancelled this Christmas as everyone awaits the arrival of Vista in 2007. However, most agree that it is better for Microsoft to ship a completed product rather than one like Windows XP that has been dogged with security issues.

Even so, Vista will not launch as originally intended, with some key features absent from the launch release, including an entire reworking of the file system, called WinFS.

Microsoft plans to launch six versions of Vista. Three of these are earmarked for the home market, two for business and one for emerging markets.