Vista - business uptake still slow

Vista uptake is unlikely to increase dramatically during 2008, according to security vendor McAfee, who said businesses are "leery" of upgrading from current Microsoft operating systems.

One reason businesses have not been keen to upgrade to Vista is the hardware that is needed to handle the resource-hungry operating system, said David Marcus, security research manager for McAfee Avert Labs.

Marcus said: "In 2007 there has been less than 10 per cent market penetration for Vista. There hasn't been a huge adoption. Most people haven't upgraded because of the hardware upgrade needed."

Vista: all the coverage...

♦ Vista - when will business take the plunge?
♦ Gates: Vista selling faster than XP
♦ Tesco.com takes stock with Windows Vista
♦ CIO Jury: IT chiefs not yet planning for Windows Vista
♦ Blighty Vista "overcharging" attacked

There is not enough of a security case for upgrading to Vista, Marcus added. While the 64-bit version of Vista has more security features than Windows XP, XP running Service Pack 2 with security products was adequate for most businesses needs, he said.

According to Marcus: "XP is still robust, and is sound with SP2. Most businesses are looking at it from the point of view of, 'Why change out for some nice graphics when XP does what we need?' People are leery of upgrading."

There was, however, a security bonus, Marcus said. Vista would be unlikely to become an interesting target for malware writers until it achieved 20 to 30 per cent market share - a figure that's still some way off.

He said: "Once Vista gets the numbers it'll become interesting to the bad guys, who'll find ways to circumvent it like anything."

Vista 64-bit security features, such as Kernel Patch Protection, which blocks attempts to modify the core OS, would not be effective against certain types of malware, Marcus warned.

Marcus said: "If you look at Trojans and bots, the majority just sit on the machine and do what they do - they don't have to root the operating system." Social engineering attacks that attempt to dupe the user will also continue to be a problem on Vista, he added.

Forrester research suggests most businesses are keen to stay with XP until at least 2010. In a report, How Windows Vista will shake up the state of the enterprise operating system, Forrester analyst Benjamin Gray wrote while Vista uptake is currently at two per cent, XP is at 84 per cent.

Gray wrote: "There it is. Two per cent! The era of Windows Vista within enterprises has officially started with a whimper. Standardisation on the Windows XP platform has continued unabated, going from 67 per cent of PCs last year to 84 per cent of PCs this year. And this happened across the board."

The majority of businesses will move to Vista only when forced to, by Microsoft ceasing to support XP, according to Gray. The current road map for XP Professional states extended support will end in April 2014.

Just over half of enterprises have no current plans to deploy Windows Vista, according to the research.

Microsoft had not responded to a request for comment at the time of writing.

Tom Espiner writes for ZDNet.co.uk