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After many years and many delays, Microsoft Windows Vista was released -- for business users -- in November. The consumer versions will launch at the end of this month.

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It's ironic that business has gotten Vista first, because enterprise will be the last to upgrade to Microsoft's new OS. Windows Vista marks a significant change from XP, so it will require considerable training time before employees feel comfortable on it. Vista brings new tools and a new interface, so even the training staff will need extra training.

Additionally, existing applications might not run under Vista, so your company will need to invest a serious amount of testing time before deployment, to ensure that crucial business apps won't break under the new OS. Pay special attention to applications that make calls to the registry or other security-risk files: new security measures in Vista prevent apps on standard accounts from accessing those files.

Also, Vista has some steep usage requirements, and it simply won't run on many legacy systems. Unless your PC fleet was purchased in the last few years, upgrading your operating system might mean more that just installing software: you might need to upgrade a number of your computers, as well.

Vista comes in five varieties, but only two are meant for business users: Vista Business and Vista Enterprise. Vista Business will be the most popular choice. It comes with most of the new eye-catching features, including the visually dynamic Aero interface and the easy collaboration features, only lacking the entertainment software and, unfortunately, the BitLocker drive encryption feature.

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