Why are 74% of business computers still running XP

We reported yesterday that Microsoft had extended downgrade rights for Windows XP from Windows 7, but the reason seems to stem from the fact that a reported 74% of work PCs are still running Windows XP.

This seems odd given that it was also recently reported that 50% of business either have or are ready to upgrade to Windows 7. So what’s the anomaly and what’s causing the problem?

More info here: Why are 74% of business computers still running XP? | Windows 7 News

Upgrade costs and legacy software/hardware would be my guess. If the machine is working correctly why would any business upgrade it. Support from Microsoft....not likely. Companies do NOT upgrade like home users, there MUST be a ROI.

there is still a small issue of software compatability.

a small company that i help recently had major trojan problem with their ancient xp machine. they went out and bought a new machine that came with 7 home premium, and asked me to set it up and transfer data and software from one machine to the other.

unfortunately they used a very old version of quickbooks accounting software, and did not want to be forced to upgrade to the much more expensive modern version, when they were familiar and comfortable with their old package that met their needs perfectly.

no matter what i tried, the old quickbooks just wasn't playing ball with 7 even after many calls to the intuit technical support team.

answer to the problem? a dual-boot system so they could use xp and quickbooks for work, and 7 for other stuff.

basically a lot of companies don't want to spend money unneccessarily - my clients were already out of pocket buying a new pc, and did not want to spend a lot more on software too!

Money...

With an economy in the tank, sometimes you are lucky to to even meet your rent and payroll.

Try to convince a small business that is just getting by that they shoud upgrade their computers. If it's working and you can run Excel, and a few business related programs, what is the need?

My business is hospitality, and not really relied on computers. I use my computer at home to do what I need to do. I use Windows 7, but that's because I'm a PC enthusiast in my off time.

Small business simply does not have the money sometimes to upgrade unnecessary
components that are still working. The only way they would is if the computers totally died, and the new replacements came with Windows 7.

I love Windows 7, but sometimes there are more reasons for people not upgrading than simply by choice.

There may be several reasons.
- Their XP is still running smoothly.
- They do not want to spend money on a new software.
- They do not want to lose time (and installing a new OS does make you lose time)
- They do not like having to learn something new (productivity tends to drop for a few days until people get used to the new system and have customized it to their needs)
- They are not sure whether their old software and hardware will be compatible with Win 7
- After the catastrophic reports on Vista they may just be plain afraid

If my old XP hadn't started to show funny errors I wouldn't have switched either. But now I'm enjoying 64bit performance I'm glad I did.

I'm in "the business" of setting up and repairing home computers.
(NO business systems)
To a man (or woman) not one of my customers likes Windows 7.
Simple things they could do with XP are almost impossible to do with 7.
Like increase the point size of the desktop icon text by a point or two, or quickly change wallpaper. Even "RUN" isn't available till W-7 had been customized. A new W-7 user could never figure out how to do things like that.

It takes me an hour or more to just get 7 tweaked and customized to work and look anything close to like XP. People who have used Outlook Express for years are really frustrated to find that O.E. is GONE! After a lot of tweaking and tuning, Windows Live Mail can be made to work.....sort of, but it's not the same friendly program that O.E. was.

In a business environment, it would be even worse, trying to get a Win-7 PC to run old reliable software that the user was familiar with.

On my own Main system, I'm still running XP-Pro-SP3 32bit, even though I have a 64 bit, dual core, CPU.

Something never mentioned.... Windows XP will run like a scalded dog on a FAT-32 formatted Hard Drive. It gives the user or IT specialist access to every file on the HD from a DOS boot disk. I use that trick to delete all the garbage off of my HD before I do my weekly HD backup. There's no use backing up junk.
Then I run my Ghost backup program from the same DOS boot disk.

Just some personal observations.......

XP SP2/SP3 is still a solid, stable OS. For businesses that do not require the latest and [usually] greatest, they are content with it. If they don't need to, they won't spend the tons of $$ for the new stuff.

Love Windows 7 said:

We reported yesterday that Microsoft had extended downgrade rights for Windows XP from Windows 7, but the reason seems to stem from the fact that a reported 74% of work PCs are still running Windows XP.

This seems odd given that it was also recently reported that 50% of business either have or are ready to upgrade to Windows 7. So what’s the anomaly and what’s causing the problem?

More info here: Why are 74% of business computers still running XP? | Windows 7 News

Click to expand...

Like others have said, the main reason is simply money. The company I work for is planning on upgrading, but the biggest hold up is hardware. The average desktop is an all-in-one purchased from a company that is no longer in business (MPC - the old Micron PC). These systems are 2.8 Ghz Pentium D with 1 GB RAM. The average laptop is a Core2 T7200 (2 Ghz) with 1 GB RAM. That's the average configuration, with plenty of 512 MB RAM systems in the mix.

We're lucky, in that we don't seem to have any software issues that are holding us up. Also, this upgrade is happening in tandem with a move from Novell to MS servers and Groupwise to Exchange mail. The planned upgrade date is by Oct. 1, but I'm pretty sure that will be extended to 2011.

DrWho said:

I'm in "the business" of setting up and repairing home computers.
(NO business systems)
To a man (or woman) not one of my customers likes Windows 7.
Simple things they could do with XP are almost impossible to do with 7.
Like increase the point size of the desktop icon text by a point or two, or quickly change wallpaper. Even "RUN" isn't available till W-7 had been customized. A new W-7 user could never figure out how to do things like that.

Click to expand...

You do realize that the search box in the start menu acts just like Run, don't you? Only it's faster as you don't have to type in the whole program name for most common tasks.

In order to quickly resize the desktop text, just hold the CTRL and move the scroll wheel. Quite a bit faster than XP.

DrWho said:

It takes me an hour or more to just get 7 tweaked and customized to work and look anything close to like XP. People who have used Outlook Express for years are really frustrated to find that O.E. is GONE! After a lot of tweaking and tuning, Windows Live Mail can be made to work.....sort of, but it's not the same friendly program that O.E. was.

Click to expand...

OE was a security nightmare. There's a reason it got scrapped. Windows mail in Vista was basically OE, Live mail is somewhat different in GUI, but not so different in functionality.

DrWho said:

In a business environment, it would be even worse, trying to get a Win-7 PC to run old reliable software that the user was familiar with.

Click to expand...

Win 7 runs the vast majority of old software. I have one piece of software that does not function completely in Win 7 x64 (it does in Win 7 x32) because the lazy programmers used a non-standard call for printing (a 16-bit sub-system). However, XP-mode runs it just fine. As a business system would be professional or better, XP mode is free.

DrWho said:

On my own Main system, I'm still running XP-Pro-SP3 32bit, even though I have a 64 bit, dual core, CPU.

Click to expand...

Why? Do you have software that doesn't work? Did you already own XP, or did you purposely buy XP over 7? These make a difference. If you built a new system today and had to add an OS, would you seriously pick XP over 7?

DrWho said:

Something never mentioned.... Windows XP will run like a scalded dog on a FAT-32 formatted Hard Drive. It gives the user or IT specialist access to every file on the HD from a DOS boot disk. I use that trick to delete all the garbage off of my HD before I do my weekly HD backup. There's no use backing up junk.
Then I run my Ghost backup program from the same DOS boot disk.

Click to expand...

FAT32 is an outdated, antiquated file system that has no modern data retention capabilities. It has file size limitations, poor attribute handling and partition size limitations. How exactly do you store that 5GB ISO file on your FAT partition? Take a partially full 2 TB drive and run the "Dir" command on it. It takes forever, due to the FAT arrangement.

PhreePhly

Love Windows 7 said:

We reported yesterday that Microsoft had extended downgrade rights for Windows XP from Windows 7, but the reason seems to stem from the fact that a reported 74% of work PCs are still running Windows XP.

This seems odd given that it was also recently reported that 50% of business either have or are ready to upgrade to Windows 7. So what’s the anomaly and what’s causing the problem?

More info here: Why are 74% of business computers still running XP? | Windows 7 News

Click to expand...

Applications. There are a lot of businesses still using Windows XP because of application compatibility. It's what happens with poor programming.

IMHO and experience its all about "The Money". Most small to medium size companies don't have the extra cash to replace XP at this point in time.

JonM33 said:

Love Windows 7 said:

We reported yesterday that Microsoft had extended downgrade rights for Windows XP from Windows 7, but the reason seems to stem from the fact that a reported 74% of work PCs are still running Windows XP.

This seems odd given that it was also recently reported that 50% of business either have or are ready to upgrade to Windows 7. So what’s the anomaly and what’s causing the problem?

More info here: Why are 74% of business computers still running XP? | Windows 7 News

Click to expand...

Applications. There are a lot of businesses still using Windows XP because of application compatibility. It's what happens with poor programming.

Click to expand...

Not true. Older software often doesn't work on newer systems because the newer systems have dropped support for older software/technologies.

To "chalk it up" to "poor programming" is asinine.

Win7User512 said:

Not true. Older software often doesn't work on newer systems because the newer systems have dropped support for older software/technologies.

To "chalk it up" to "poor programming" is asinine.

Click to expand...

I speak from experience of working for companies that would not upgrade to Windows 7 because of JUST that. Call it asinine, but they were the ones stuck with the incompatible software.

Poor programming is for the in-house software that is developed. These people program the software to require local Administrators group membership of all things.

JonM33 said:

Win7User512 said:

Not true. Older software often doesn't work on newer systems because the newer systems have dropped support for older software/technologies.

To "chalk it up" to "poor programming" is asinine.

Click to expand...

I speak from experience of working for companies that would not upgrade to Windows 7 because of JUST that. Call it asinine, but they were the ones stuck with the incompatible software.

Poor programming is for the in-house software that is developed. These people program the software to require local Administrators group membership of all things.

Click to expand...

You speak from limited experience. To base your blanket conclusion on "poor programming" is absurd.

Just because the in-house software you are familiar with was crap doesn't mean everyone's is.

That is like saying an ASP.NET 1.1 is not compatible with a hypothetical IIS 10.0 is due to "poor programming" when it is really due to change in technology.

Why do you imagine Windows 9.x apps don't run or run poorly on 7?

Hint: Microsoft has changed a lot of the code and design models in between.

hoganth said:

IMHO and experience its all about "The Money". Most small to medium size companies don't have the extra cash to replace XP at this point in time.

Click to expand...

Bingo and that goes for local and state governments, too.

CarlTR6 said:

hoganth said:

IMHO and experience its all about "The Money". Most small to medium size companies don't have the extra cash to replace XP at this point in time.

Click to expand...

Bingo and that goes for local and state governments, too.

Click to expand...

I think another component to that is need. Many systems run fine as they are.

Too many people think that there is only one reason, when it is a multitude. Some more important than others to different people.

In the business world, need is equated to money. "Yes, we need to upgrade; but we can make do. We don't have the money to upgrade 25 computers and six of them would have to be replaced to run Win 7." Or variations of this.

Win7User512 said:

JonM33 said:

Win7User512 said:

Not true. Older software often doesn't work on newer systems because the newer systems have dropped support for older software/technologies.

To "chalk it up" to "poor programming" is asinine.

Click to expand...

I speak from experience of working for companies that would not upgrade to Windows 7 because of JUST that. Call it asinine, but they were the ones stuck with the incompatible software.

Poor programming is for the in-house software that is developed. These people program the software to require local Administrators group membership of all things.

Click to expand...

You speak from limited experience. To base your blanket conclusion on "poor programming" is absurd.

Just because the in-house software you are familiar with was crap doesn't mean everyone's is.

That is like saying an ASP.NET 1.1 is not compatible with a hypothetical IIS 10.0 is due to "poor programming" when it is really due to change in technology.

Why do you imagine Windows 9.x apps don't run or run poorly on 7?

Hint: Microsoft has changed a lot of the code and design models in between.

Click to expand...

The reason many Win9X programs don't run on Win7 x64 is simply that they contain 16-bit code and/or made use of assembler code for perfomance. However, I have a few Win 3.1 programs I wrote that run on Win 7 x32 just fine (I can use Win7 x64, but need XP Mode). By following standard coding practices, they work. They are simple programs written in VB 3, but the point is, I followed the proper API's available at the time, and MS is quite adept at making things pretty backwards compatible. JonM33 is correct in that programs written properly to the API have a very good chance of being compatible.

However, going outside the standard API, or using nifty programming tricks to eek out that last Mhz will often break that backwards compatiblity. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as better performance is good, but it does cause heartache and teeth-nashing later.

PhreePhly

We are still an XP Pro company, with a couple thousand employees. I can tell you, for our company, the main reason is support of lagacy information systems. We use some very antiquated software, I think our gas measurement techs still run some DOS-based stuff actually.

It is not a matter of money for most large companies, truly.

Believe it or not, our IT group is finally rolling out IE8 later this month. :sarc:

PhreePhly said:

Win7User512 said:

JonM33 said:

I speak from experience of working for companies that would not upgrade to Windows 7 because of JUST that. Call it asinine, but they were the ones stuck with the incompatible software.

Poor programming is for the in-house software that is developed. These people program the software to require local Administrators group membership of all things.

Click to expand...

You speak from limited experience. To base your blanket conclusion on "poor programming" is absurd.

Just because the in-house software you are familiar with was crap doesn't mean everyone's is.

That is like saying an ASP.NET 1.1 is not compatible with a hypothetical IIS 10.0 is due to "poor programming" when it is really due to change in technology.

Why do you imagine Windows 9.x apps don't run or run poorly on 7?

Hint: Microsoft has changed a lot of the code and design models in between.

Click to expand...

The reason many Win9X programs don't run on Win7 x64 is simply that they contain 16-bit code and/or made use of assembler code for perfomance. However, I have a few Win 3.1 programs I wrote that run on Win 7 x32 just fine (I can use Win7 x64, but need XP Mode). By following standard coding practices, they work. They are simple programs written in VB 3, but the point is, I followed the proper API's available at the time, and MS is quite adept at making things pretty backwards compatible. JonM33 is correct in that programs written properly to the API have a very good chance of being compatible.

However, going outside the standard API, or using nifty programming tricks to eek out that last Mhz will often break that backwards compatiblity. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as better performance is good, but it does cause heartache and teeth-nashing later.

PhreePhly

Click to expand...

Actually you confirmed my argument.

At the same time, when technology changes some stuff simply doesn't work, despite best practices.

Coding in best practices gets you the longest shelflife of software. BUT when Windows 20 comes around and they say "hey, no support for Windows 7 API" then it must be redone.