Windows XP Beats Windows 7 in the Enterprise by 750 Percent

Microsoft has justifiably touted the overall success of Windows 7, noting that in its first year, it sold more than 240 million licenses of it. But a just-released report from Forrester shows that Windows XP still rules the business world, where it beats Windows 7 by a margin of 7.5 to one.

According to the Forrester report, Updated 2010: Windows 7 Commercial Adoption Outlook, Windows 7 "powers one out of every 10 PCs within North American and European companies." Windows XP, the report says, powers 75%.

A lot of that, of course, is due to installed base --- Windows XP has been around since 2001, and it's a stable operating system, so enterprises that have adopted it tend to stay with it. Windows 7 has only been around a year.

But even on new PCs, enterprises still shy away from Windows 7, with IT managers deploying it on only 31% of new PCs. That will change, however. The report says that within a year, 83% of new PCs going into businesses will run Windows 7.

So even though the numbers for Windows 7 in the enterprise aren't impressive today, they will be in the future, and by that time the debacle of Windows Vista in enterprises will be long forgotten.