Microsoft is denying a report (earlier story) that it has begun rewriting its Windows Vista operating system.

Microsoft flatly denied the report. The company is working on security, testing and polish - "not writing new code," according to a spokesperson, who added: Windows Vista is on track for the November launch of the enterprise version and the January 2007 release of the consumer version. "There aren't any Xbox developers moving over to the Windows Vista team."

Robert Scoble, a Microsoft technical evangelist and blogger, denounced the rumor as "totally 100 percent false." There is no way Microsoft could rewrite 60 percent of the thousands of lines of code in time for the January CES, Scoble said.

The report hit at the end of a week of delay news from Microsoft. It announced it will delay the general launch of Office 2007 to coincide with Vista's new January 2007 date. The business version of Office 2007 is still expected in October.