Windows 7 adoption continues upswing

Dimensional Research reveals that IT professionals are more confident in Microsoft's most recent OS

Shiny Windows 7: A total of 87 per cent of IT professionals are looking to adopt Windows 7

Windows 7 continues to trounce predecessor Vista after new research revealed that 87 per cent of IT professionals surveyed are planning to adopt the operating system (OS).

Research commissioned by Dell KACE and carried out on more than 900 respondents across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific by analyst Dimensional Research, also revealed that those considering alternative operating systems to avoid Windows decreased from 50 to 32 per cent.

Other findings include 46 per cent of respondents revealing that they plan to migrate even before the release of service pack 1 (SP1) and 86 per cent reporting concern about software compatibility when migrating to Windows 7. Just 25 per cent expressed concerns about Windows 7's performance, down from the 47 per cent that expressed concern in a 2009 survey.

Rob Meinhardt, president of Dell KACE, said: “These results reinforce what we are hearing from the customers we talk to every day. Productivity gains associated with working in two windows at the same time, having an OS that works with proprietary technology, encryption to protect credit card numbers and employee data, and connecting PCs quickly and easily to wired and wireless networks are among the big wins over Windows XP most often cited by our customers.”

Diane Hagglund, senior research analyst at Dimensional Research said another reason for the high interest levels in Windows 7 is the fact that XP is reaching its end-of-life.

“As Windows XP becomes out of date and more expensive to support and with Vista increasingly insignificant, IT leaders are embracing Windows 7,” she said. “Based on previous research, Windows 7 deployments are dramatically ahead of planned Vista deployments at a similar stage in the OS lifecycle with most respondents skipping Vista altogether.”