Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT)'s critics from Cambridge to Silicon Valley can take some comfort in knowing that the company's quarterly results won't be that great when they are issued Thursday. Profit in the period ending December 31 is expected to be 23 cents per share versus 33 cents a year earlier, according to Thomson Financial. Revenue is expected to rise 2 percent to $12.07 billion.

Nonetheless, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer is playing the role of cheerleader-in-chief well. Bloomberg News quotes him as saying that sales of Windows Vista to businesses may exceed initial estimates. In fact, he said Citigroup Inc.(NYSE:C) was planning to install Vista on 350,000 desktops in June.

People should take this with a grain of salt, a big one. Citigroup no doubt got a really sweet deal from Microsoft for allowing its name to be used by Ballmer. Usually a customer that agrees to such a thing gets lots and lots of free stuff like support.

I'm not sure whether Vista, which began shipping to corporate customers in November, will make much of an impact in the quarter. The Zune music player seems to have had modest holiday sales, though Ballmer said he was pleased with how it went. The Xbox 360 did well.

Besides the potential for Vista, you can bet that analysts will want details on the company's spending plans to catch up to Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in search. Though the company has won some kudos from advertisers for improvements made to MSN, it still has a long way to go. As of December, Google held a whopping 47.5 percent of the market to Microsoft's 10.5 percent, according to comScore Networks. Google and even Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) gained share while Microsoft lost it.

Also check out some other earnings reports that we're following, and let us know your thoughts on earnings expectations.