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Economy May Slow Windows 7 Adoption in Enterprises By Richard Koman October 16, 2009 1:10PM     The dark chapter of Windows Vista will close next week as Microsoft rolls out Windows 7, but enterprises may not have the money for full deployment. Unlike Vista's introduction, Softchoice said 88 percent of today's PCs can run Window 7. But with IT departments doing more with less, an analyst said it could take three years to fully deploy Windows 7.   Related Topics Windows Vista Microsoft Windows 7 Latest News Plasma-TV Ban Could Be Costly Barnes & Noble Nook Is Delayed Flat PC Shipments Hurt Dell's Stock Ballmer Says Windows 7 Sales Good New Pogoplug 'Cloud' Gets Social Microsoft is preparing to finally close the book on the dark chapter called Windows Vista next week, as it officially releases its next-generation operating system, Windows 7. One of the biggest problems with Vista was the hardware cost for enterprises. Only six percent of PCs were capable of running Vista's advanced features at the time of its release, Gartner reported in 2006. Only half of PCs were capable of running even the minimal Vista installation. The situation is much improved today, Softchoice reported in a research note Thursday. The firm said 88 percent of PCs are capable of running Windows 7 -- and 65 percent can run the operating system's advanced features. "We've seen a sea change compared to the landscape in which Vista was introduced," Softchoice Services Development Manager Dean Williams wrote in the note. "The natural PC refresh cycle has more or less eliminated system requirements as a potential stumbling block to deploying Windows 7." The migration question is about "understanding the benefits of switching" and "implementing a plan to minimize any potential deployment headaches," Williams wrote. Economy puts drag on migration Not so fast, Michael Cherry, vice president of research for Windows operating systems at Directions on Microsoft, said in a telephone interview. "Microsoft finally has a product corporate customers want, but I'm not convinced (enterprises) have the budgets to upgrade." In the current economic situation, "IT budgets are under increasing pressure, IT is under pressure to do more with less," Cherry said. "If the economy wasn't so bad, you might have enterprises doing massive rollouts, but in this environment I believe they'll do more of a rolling rollout." Corporations won't rush out to buy new machines for Windows 7, nor will they rush to upgrade older machines running Windows XP. "They'll remove prohibitions from acquiring machines with the new operating system on it" as existed for Vista, Cherry said, "and as machines get to their end of life, they'll replace them with new Windows 7 machines." Machines purchased in the past year with XP will probably get upgraded to Windows 7, he added. Call it Vista SP3 Cherry also cautioned that, as with any new operating system, there will be bug reports, but that shouldn't scare buyers away from Windows 7. "We will hear some things. Software has bugs -- that shouldn't surprise anyone. The question is how big is that exposure and how will Microsoft respond?" Buyers shouldn't feel they need to wait for the first service pack, either. As Windows 7 is essentially "Vista with the rough edges removed," enterprise purchasers can think of the new OS as Vista Service Pack 3. "There's no benefit to waiting," he said. How long will this "rolling rollout" take? "Enterprises are finishing up their evaluations and starting deployments now, but Windows 7 won't be fully deployed for three years," Cherry said.   Advertisement  Enterprise I.T. 1.   Flat PC Shipments Hurt Dell's Stock 2.   Smartphones: New Security Risks 3.   FBI Says Hackers Targeting Law Firms 4.   Lock-and-Load Security for Your PC 5.   MS Study Sees Growing Worm Threat AMD Unveils Processor Road Map Emphasis will be on graphics, video. Average Rating: Intel Settles with AMD for $1.25B CEO Otellini wants to 'show our side.' Average Rating: Social-Networking Security a Concern Facebook hijacking shows dangers. Average Rating:

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Flat Shipments Hurt Dell Despite Increased Earnings Dell's earnings are up and expectations are solid, but the company's stock still took a hit after analysts signaled the company isn't playing a key role in the PC market recovery.   Smartphones: A Bigger Target for Security Threats Smartphones are increasingly prevalent and adept at handling more tasks, including trading stocks, paying bills, and buying stuff online. That makes them attractive to thieves and hackers.   FBI Says Hackers Targeting Law Firms, PR Companies Hackers are targeting law firms and public relations companies with a sophisticated e-mail scheme that breaks into their computer networks to steal sensitive data, often linked to large corporate clients.

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