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Vista: what is the Big Secret which Microsoft is afraid of exposing?

You'd expect Microsoft's IT Forum this year to have been the top headline on Google. After all, Vista fever is now in full swing. Frantic developers are jamming the Microsoft servers with download requests, and an insane frenzy applies to the whole of Microsoft, as the new OS ships to corporate subscribers.

And I bet you never knew. Not surprising, when only Google says only 81 reports have Vista AND Microsoft AND IT Forum in common!

Normally, there's one thing you have to say for Microsoft: it may not waste too much of its time on the Press, perhaps, but when it does go for the headlines, it traditionally knows how to do it.

Most years, this major convention is attended by thousands of tech delegates, and hundreds of journalists swarm all over it, interviewing senior Microsoft staff. It generates headlines galore.

But this isn't a normal year! - with Windows Vista announced the Friday before the forum with "Windows Vista Is Here" and "This day marks Microsoft's most compelling operating system release in over a decade..." all over the Microsoft Developer Network web pages, yours truly was keen to share the raz-ma-taz.

So, when The Register rang up and said: "Can you cover the show?" I accepted promptly. Regular Register blogger Martin Banks had signed up for the slot, and then come down with the flu, so all Microsoft had to do was change the labels on the badge.

"We don't have the budget," said a flack.

It is, of course, a serious problem. Once the convention hits town, if you aren't a guest of Microsoft, then finding a hotel is a real challenge. But, surely, if Mr Banks was cancelling, all they had to do was give me his key?

"We don't have the budget."

Well, I can help there. I'm happy to pay for my own lunch. I mean, I understand that a small, struggling startup like Microsoft can't be expected to fund my lavish life-style; but what other budget?

"Flights," said the flack.

How much does it cost to get to Barcelona? British Airways is advertising a 29 pound one-way ticket. But if you don't like that, you can fly to Girona for 25 pounds, and take a seven-Euro bus to Barcelona. If Microsoft can't afford my lunch (understandable) and if they don't want to suffer the humiliation of seeing me pay for my own air fare, what's so hard about a 25 quid flight? What's so hard about rebooking the room in the name of Kewney, not Banks?

So, is Microsoft really short of the wherewithall to find a couple of hundred quid? Or is there something of a problem with Vista, which they're hoping nobody will spot? Or are we simply dealing with a junior PR flunkey who decided there was too much work involved in changing a booking? And if the last, does that explain why so few people went?