Economy could slow enterprise adoption of Windows 7

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Windows 7: Vista Reloaded

• New post-beta Windows 7 build leaks to Web
• Report: Free Windows 7 upgrades to run until January 2010
• Microsoft dumps Ultimate Extras from Windows 7
• HP says its netbooks will likely run three versions of Windows 7
• Economy could slow enterprise adoption of Windows 7
• Microsoft caves, will change Windows 7 UAC
• Microsoft tweaks Windows 7 UAC after new exploit code surfaces
• Microsoft cites 'click fatigue' for Windows 7 security change

Windows 7: Full coverage

Brust added that improved security features in Windows 7 and its superiority on 64-bit PCs are also reasons for companies to upgrade.

However, on the latter point, Cherry said that with the economic crisis, companies may not be purchasing expensive computers when they do loosen budgets to buy new machines, so the 64-bit argument for the OS -- one that Microsoft tried to make with Vista -- may not fly.

That's why Microsoft plans to make Windows 7 work well on older PCs and new low-cost PCs and netbooks. This, Brust said, will make Windows 7 "more attractive as an upgrade for the entire installed base of PCs inside an organization" than was Vista, with its complex hardware requirements.

Still, Cherry is reserving judgment about whether Windows 7 will run well on older or low-cost machines until he sees its final release.

"It's certainly a goal for the OS [to run well on low-cost hardware], but I don't think anyone's goal for a new OS is to make it thicker, dumber and slower," he said. "I'm sure it was the same goal with Vista. But we won't know until we see the final code."

For Cherry, a more compelling reason for companies to upgrade is a set of features in Windows 7 that take advantage of new capabilities in its companion server OS, Windows Server 2008 R2, which Microsoft is expected to release shortly after Windows 7, he said.

Microsoft traditionally updates both the client and server versions of Windows at around the same time, and pitches them to customers as "better together." This ploy did not work with Vista and Windows Server 2008, but the tie-ins between the two weren't so obvious, Cherry said.

There are networking and other features in Windows Server 2008 R2 that take advantage of new features in Windows 7, so Microsoft might have better luck promoting the two together this time around, despite the flagging economy, he said.