Vista Release to Manufacturers Delayed?

News outlets and private sources are reporting that Microsoft plans to delay the release of Windows Vista to computer manufacturers and systems integrators by at least a week while it chases down at least one serious, last-minute problem. At this time reports from sources vary, but Microsoft seems to be targeting Vista’s release to manufacturing for Wednesday, November 8, a week after its initial target date of November 1. Even with a week’s delay, Microsoft still has a chance to meet its end-of-November deadline for releasing Windows Vista to channel partners and bulk licensees.

Microsoft’s official stance, as iterated yesterday through Microsoft’s PR firm, is that Vista has not been delayed, and is still on track for a January, 2007 release to consumers.

According to one source (but separately corroborated by PC World’s Elizabeth Montalbano) the last-minute hitch involves a crashing bug in Vista build 5824 which could result in data loss and, in some circumstances, could require a complete re-installation of the Vista operating system. According to reports, the bug was identified roughly two weeks ago and fixed in build 5840 a week later; assuming the fix holds, regression testing and shakedown would presumably be the cause of any delay in shipping Vista to manufacturers.

Microsoft is currently planning two releases of Windows Vista, one to partners, enterprisers and bulk licensees by the end of November 2006, and finally making the operating system available to consumers in January, 2007. The initial release to partners and businesses is the most likely to be impacted by any last minute delays; Microsoft has not released any specific dates for its planned consumer release.