Two-thirds of UK firms to deploy Windows 7

Microsoft looks to have a winner on its hands with Windows 7

Two-thirds of companies in the UK will eventually upgrade their operating system to Windows 7, according to new figures from Forrester Research.

A survey of 655 IT decision makers in Europe and the US found that seven per cent of businesses will roll out the new software in the next year.

Some 49 per cent of businesses will migrate to Windows 7 but have no specific plans in place on when or how they will begin, while 10 per cent have plans to deploy the operating system, but not in the next 12 months.

Five per cent of those surveyed said that they will migrate from Windows to a different operating system, and one per cent had no idea what they were doing.

The research showed that Windows 7 will become the new standard for most commercial PCs in the next 12 months.

According to Forrester data, Windows XP is installed on four out of five PCs. When the IT professionals were asked to predict their new PC deployments in the next year, the responses suggested that Windows 7 will be the primary operating system deployed.

Windows Vista market share is expected to shrink from 15 per cent to 10 per cent, and Windows XP is expected to fall from 81 per cent to 34 per cent.

Windows 7 launched worldwide today, and Microsoft's Windows communications manager, Brandon Le Blanc, highlighted special deals for those wanting to buy the software.