U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman yesterday postponed the upcoming trial of the Vista Capable lawsuit, which was set to start April 13, court documents show.

A U.S. judge denied a request for judgment in the Microsoft Vista Capable suit, instead sending the case along to trial with a ruling Wednesday.

Attorneys are trying to get the class-action status of a suit against Microsoft's Windows Capable program reinstated by narrowing the number of plaintiffs who can participate in it.

A federal judge Wednesday stripped class-action status from the "Vista Capable" lawsuit that has plagued Microsoft for nearly two years, but will allow the plaintiffs to continue to sue the company separately.

Microsoft has denied that it makes money when users "downgrade" Windows Vista to the older XP, as a lawsuit filed last week alleges.

A group within Microsoft recommended in 2005 that the lowest-priced version of Windows Vista be released without the Vista name because of concerns over "user product expectations," according to documents unsealed by a US federal court Wednesday.

An expert has determined that Microsoft may have earned more than US$1 billion from its controversial Windows Vista Capable sticker program, which is still at the center of a class-action suit being decided in a Washington state court.

A federal judge in Seattle has ordered Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to testify in a class action lawsuit against Microsoft that alleges the company misled consumers in a marketing campaign for its Windows Vista operating system in which computers sold with an older Microsoft OS were labeled 'Vista Capable' when in fact they could only run a basic version of Vista.