My wife has a theory that only bad things happen in November. It is, she says, the time when the shortening days and darker skies become more noticeable, you’re more likely to fall ill, and all the crap at work that has been patiently saving itself up over the summer suddenly discharges on you in one go.

Statistically speaking, the December run-up to Christmas is supposed to be much worse. It is, apparently, a busy time for divorce lawyers and a favourite period for bosses to sack staff (thereby avoiding annual bonuses, holiday pay and January salary rises). Perhaps worst of all, it is a quiet time in the double-glazing trade, which means the cold callers who would normally phone you at dinner time start ringing your doorbell instead.

Amid the usual winter gnashing and grinding of teeth, Vista’s launch for corporate customers ought to have given us something to smile about. Instead, it elicited little more than a collective shrug of the shoulders.

The problem was we knew what was coming and we knew when it was coming; hence, there was absolutely no surprise to get jolly about. Perhaps a simultaneous domestic and business launch might have generated more buzz, but Microsoft, to its credit, wanted to “do the right thing” by serving its core market first.

To Microsoft’s further credit, the style of the launch – a quiet affair in the conference room of a London football stadium, rather than a firework-filled hysteria-fest in the stadium itself – was recognition that operating systems can no longer be treated as mere products. You have to budget ahead for the life of a new laser printer, of course, but this kind of planning is utterly insignificant compared to the terrifying initial workload and subsequent far-reaching knock-on effects of rolling out a new operating system.

In this light, the non-committal response from the press and research analysts is disappointing. “Who can say how Vista will catch on in 2007?” they ponder. Thanks guys, that’s really helpful. Back here in the real world, firms actually have to make that decision rather than leave it to a nebulous entity known as “the industry”. And given the lack of direction, everyone wants to wait and see what happens – a safe but ultimately self-defeating response.

On a slightly more positive note, end-users are probably more receptive to IT departments wanting to move forward more carefully than they might have been if Microsoft had opted for an explosive launch.

Besides, why make this stressful time of the year any worse?