Microsoft will probably delay the release of Windows Vista Beta 2 from December 7, 2005 to sometime in January or February 2006.

Website www.windowsitpro.com reports that the Vista development schedule is extremely time constrained, and that the company will try and make up lost time by eliminating one of the planned release candidate (RC) milestones that were planned for later in the process.

This more recent delay suggests that the company is having a difficult time meeting its internal shipping criteria for Beta 2, which is considered a major milestone release and will be made widely available to testers and the public.

It's not known at this time whether the delay will affect related product releases such as Internet Explorer (IE) 7.0 Beta 2 and Windows Media Player 11 Beta 1, both of which were also originally set for a December 7 public release.

Microsoft remains on track for shipping Windows Vista in the second half of 2006.