The Texas Senate has approved a rider to the state budget that would prevent governmental agencies from using Microsoft Vista on their computer systems unless a special approval was granted from a legislative board, Yahoo reported on Friday. Democratic Senator Juan Hinojosa proposed the change, because Vista is well-known for its problems and added Windows XP still works very well. Agencies who wish to buy Vista licenses or PCs pre-loaded with Vista need to first get written approval from the Legislative Budget Board.

Microsoft is surprised that the Texas Senate would agree to a ban that "singles out a specific corporation and product for unequal treatment."

But Information Technology Intelligence Corps analyst Laura DiDio says the state of Texas is not the sole body that is not happy with Vista's performance. Her company's survey shows that 45 percent of responding businesses have opted to skip upgrading to Vista and will wait for it successor, Windows 7, to arrive. With this latest development, Microsoft is feeling added pressure to move up the January 2010 release date of its next-generation operating system, with rumblings in the industry indicating the OS could be released as soon as this fall.