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74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old

By | July 13, 2010, 6:14am PDT

Summary: According to new data revealed by Microsoft at its Worldwide Partner Conference, enterprise upgrades to Windows 7 do not have much momentum so far in 2010.

As we said last year, 2010 is a big year for Microsoft because we’re waiting to see which way the tide will turn on enterprise adoption of Windows 7. Lots of companies are on the fence about the migration, and many others have expressed the interest to upgrade from Windows XP to 7, but could ditch that idea if skipping Windows 7 develops into a corporate best practice, the same way skipping Vista did.

According to new data revealed by Microsoft, the enterprise upgrade to Windows 7 does not have much momentum so far in 2010.

At Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference 2010 in Washington, D.C. on Monday, Microsoft Windows corporate vice president Tammi Reller said that 74% of business computers are still running Windows XP. She also said that the average age of the PC is now 4.4 years old, which is the highest number that Microsoft has seen in over a decade.

Naturally, Microsoft spins this as a huge opportunity for the company to make a lot of money by selling copies of Windows 7 to these slow upgraders. CEO Steve Ballmer predicted on Monday that Microsoft would sell 350 million copies of Windows 7 licenses by the end of 2010.

But, if you read between the lines, part of the message here is that Windows 7 adoption has not taken hold yet, and Microsoft is still hustling to convince businesses to upgrade.

In July 2009, TechRepublic’s CIO Jury was split 50/50 on whether to deploy Windows 7. Sounds like it’s time to revisit that question, and see if the results are any different a year later. Look for a new TechRepublic CIO Jury on Windows 7 before the end of the month.

Poll

Does your company plan to upgrade to Windows 7?

Poll

What's the average age of the PCs in your organization?

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Topics

PC, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Jason Hiner

Jason Hiner is the Editor in Chief of TechRepublic. He writes about the products, people, and ideas that are revolutionizing business with technology.

Disclosure

Jason Hiner

Jason Hiner has nothing to disclose. He doesn't hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Jason Hiner

Jason Hiner is the Editor in Chief of TechRepublic, an online trade publication and peer-to-peer community for IT leaders. He is an award-winning journalist who examines the latest trends and asks the big questions about the technology industry. He previously worked as an IT manager in the health care industry.

You can also find him on Twitter, , Facebook, and at JasonHiner.com.

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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
tomlin21-24319035676893835085146735905770 11th Oct
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Obviously ....
GypsyMan1 13th Jul 2010
The hardware cycle has therefore not peaked at all...viva INTC and AMD.
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Is it true that VISTA alone...
Feldwebel Wolfenstool 13th Jul 2010
...has outsold all Mac pc's sold from 1970 to 2008?
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
condelirios 13th Jul 2010
@Feldwebel Wolfenstool Yes.. and Windows 7 has as well... in fact it was released in October and December, it had already achieved this meager milestone.
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That's hilarious!!
NonZealot 13th Jul 2010
@condelirios
OS X truly is the brown Zune of the OS world!!!
  • Flagged
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
Socratesfoot Updated - 13th Jul 2010
@Feldwebel Wolfenstool

No, it's not. Like many statistics, this is deceptive. Apple Inc. saw sales of its Macintosh computers grow 38% year-over-year during fiscal 2008, both in terms of dollars and unit sales. Vista on the other hand, was largely pre-installed on PC's and removed immediately by the consumer after it was sold.

"If you throw a turd at me and I drop it, I am not the proud owner of a turd."
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
rtk 13th Jul 2010
@Socratesfoot consumer's don't remove operating systems, corporate IT does.

As for Apple's 38% growth, it hasn't increased their market share a full percentage point.
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
jpdemers@... 13th Jul 2010
@Socratesfoot: True enough... Most people don't see Win7 as a compelling reason to send more of their money to MSFT. If it comes on a new PC, they'll use it, but I don't think many are going out and buying it in order to replace an existing XP installation. (It's demand from consumers, not corporations, that's maintaining the price of XP install disks on eBay.)
MSFT has a problem in that XP/SP3 was, finally, a "good enough" OS. If XP works, more or less reliably, and it runs your favorite programs, where's the value in Win7? Security ain't it -- you still have to fight malware and spend time with patches, fixes, and updates -- and I'm not going to shell out over $100 to make my PC look a bit more like a Mac (while screwing up my legacy applications).
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
cosuna 13th Jul 2010
@Feldwebel Wolfenstool

But the iPad has oversold Windows 7 box licenses in just a few weeks.... so quit spining... since it seems the MS check is not on your mail this time...
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Not Obvious
Economister Updated - 13th Jul 2010
@GypsyMan1

Your conclusion does not necessarily follow. It is very possible that the average corporate HW is still good enough for the jobs they need to do. A good internal cleaning including the PS and a new display may be all that is required for many corporate PCs out there. If that tuns out to be the case, both the HW makers and MS may be in for lean times.
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
bmonsterman 13th Jul 2010
@Economister,
Too true. And most corporate users aren't complaining because they would rather not have their daily work interrupted by an upgrade.
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
Barry Rosie 13th Jul 2010
@miffed,
Especially when the upgrade that Microsoft is talking about for Windows XP computers is really not an upgrade at all. If there was an easy upgrade solution for Windows XP to Windows 7 like there is an easy upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 then maybe more people would be upgrading instead of staying with Windows XP. I for one am miffed at the fact that you have to reinstall all of your programs in order to "upgrade" to Windows 7 from Windows XP.
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
Socratesfoot Updated - 13th Jul 2010
@bmonsterman Not all PC's running XP are 4 years old. Read the survey on this site, more are 2-3. Many are even new. These PC may have come with Vista or Win7 but they were immediately re-loaded with XP. This means two things. First, that the statistics for Vista and Win7 installs are over-inflated. Second, that use of XP could continue independently of of the need for hardware for a long time.

It also means that if Linux distros can advance Gnome to the point that it has greater similarity to XP then Windows 7 does. Users may take that option to avoid a learning curve, the cost of licensing, or the need to upgrade.
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
BrewmanNH 13th Jul 2010
@barry rosie
Most corporate computers don't "upgrade" the software from one OS version to another. We wipe the drives and install from an image (Ghost for example). All that gets saved is the user's documents, favorites, and possibly their Outlook *.pst files. Most corporate users don't have much of any data actually on their drives, they're all on redirects, and are on locked down user accounts and can't install any software anyways.
Why would anyone want the hassle of installing all that software on hundreds of machines when you can just install it on one machine, Ghost it, and reimage the others? I personally can't wait until my company gets off of XP and moves to something made less than 9 years ago.
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My work PC is over five years old, runs XP
HollywoodDog 13th Jul 2010
@Economister ... and the company has zero plan to upgrade. They are right. No point running out to spend a lot of money for us to do what we're already doing.
I have a brand new Mac at home, so don't care much about Work PC. Work sucks anyway, why should work PC not suck too?
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
Socratesfoot 13th Jul 2010
@HollywoodDog
...the funniest part of it all is that MS continues to focus on creating a better gaming environment, more "social networking", and other home products. As an IT person...try and remove all the "distractions" from a Windows 7 install at your managers request. It takes hours of policies, uninstalling, and reinstalling of various 3rd party products. They haven't really tried to address the fact that businesses are becoming disenamoured at all. Instead they talk about an MS controlled cloud, software we can't ever own, and features that actually decrease productivity at work instead of increase it. Managers will usually say most employees need a basic Internet browser, Email, and Word Processing - that's it.
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HW Upgrade Schedule
trickytom2 13th Jul 2010
@Economister There are real dangers in extending your EOL for desktops/OS's.

"A good cleaning" doesn't cure old age! Your ROI for extending the EOL diminishes when your service costs start to escalate, at about three years.
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Cleaning and old age
Economister 13th Jul 2010
@trickytom2

The failure rate of electronics is high in the first few months of use, then tapers off to a low level for long time and finally starts to increase after many years of service.

Dust buildup on electronics is their worst enemy (other than voltage spikes) because the dust can greatly increase their operating temperatures to the point where their lifespans are greatly reduced.

An annual cleaning/vacuuming of the entire inside of the box (including the PS - and yes, that does void the warranty if any) is the most important maintenance you can do to your HW. I have been doing it for years on my family's 6-8 computers (including laptops) and my HW generally lasts longer than I care to use it, which is around 8-10 years. A lot of my family's HW runs between 40 hrs/wk and 24/7. Businesses can get the same longevity at a fairly low cost.
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
mightfly 13th Jul 2010
I agree with Economister, and a DIY oil-less air compressor is a very good tool for blasting out all that dust!
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A whole 4.4 years old...
croberts 13th Jul 2010
Well surprise! You don't need a new PC every year to edit memo or send an email.
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XP is far from antiquated
klumper Updated - 13th Jul 2010
@croberts
Well surprise! You don't need a new PC every year to edit memo or send an email.

Or even a new OS when the one in use is getting the job done adequately. With the economy in the doldrums, don't look for some miraculous uptake toward W7 and beyond anytime soon. XP since SP2 has been a perfectly satisfactory package for many people's needs, once locked down a tad.

Hardware likewise has hit certain performance levels over the last few years that make it harder to come upon, even distinguish, a truly WOW factor PC upgrade. The P4 era steadily giving way to the arrival of dual core processing (most specifically Core 2 Duo), plus RAM price windfalls, helped ensure this current evolutionary plateau.

Read Economister above for some simple maintenance get-me-by's in the meantime to stretch your good fortune.
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
chaz.broam@... 13th Jul 2010
@klumper
Windows XP's End of Life is supposedly in 2014. Would it be a good guess to say that is when Microsoft should expect those big 'upgrades' to take place? Or maybe it's when they come out with the new Win7 Server? I am a Linux man, so I don't really keep up with this stuff.

I am a tad surprised that Windows XP is @ 70%, when I thought companies would be sinking their dough into the current Windows Server OS.
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Chaz.broam look at end of posts (page 2) for reply
klumper Updated - 14th Jul 2010
@Chaz.broam

I tried to post a response here in the thread but this latest lamebrain makeover has introduced more posting bugs and hangups than a termite rotted bridge. As it is, you never know when things will take or not!
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Still billions in upside for microsoft/intel
Johnny Vegas 13th Jul 2010
no shortage of enterprise upgrades for years to come...
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This reflects what I'm seeing...
jasonp@... 13th Jul 2010
I haven't seen a Windows 7 workstation in a production environment yet. The majority of my clients are still heavily using XP to the tune of around 70% of the active workstations and 30% Vista. The manufacturing sector tends to lag well behind when it comes to technology, the thought process being let others deal with the problems inherent to bleeding edge technology and jump in once the kinks have been worked out and the product is both mature and stable. Vista is getting there, but as long as XP is supported an awful lot of companies won't upgrade because XP works for them. Another thought process that's a mainstay in manufacturing...if it works, don't change it.
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30% Vista?
Lester Young 13th Jul 2010
@jasonp@... Wow, they went for it!
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
Loverock Davidson 13th Jul 2010
Behold the power of Microsoft Windows. The OS just keeps going and going and going. XP has lasted this long which is an amazing feat. We are currently running XP but have full plans to migrate to Microsoft Windows 7 in a few months. Honestly I can't wait to use Microsoft's latest and greatest OS.
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
AndyPagin Updated - 13th Jul 2010
@Loverock Davidson
I think the days when the world rushed out to buy the latest version of Windows just because it was there are over. More and more people are quite sensibly realising than an O/S is just a means to an end and it's the applications that count. Upgrades have to show identifiable benefits to justify the cost. A worldwide recession is surely focussing minds on this.
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
Loverock Davidson 13th Jul 2010
@AndyPagin
Not quite. Its what the OS can provide to the apps. If the OS makes it easier to get to the apps or if the OS has new functionality to make the apps run better than that should be reason to upgrade. A pattern with Microsoft OS's is that each one is progressively better and easier to use than the previous one. Ease of use can go a long way with users.
  • Flagged
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
Pete "athynz" Athens 13th Jul 2010
@Loverock Davidson I'm using Microsoft's latest and greatest and I'm loving it... XP is great but it is getting a bit old, Vista just sucks out loud, 7 is the best so far.
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
Socratesfoot 13th Jul 2010
@Loverock Davidson

I'm guessing you won't have a lot of time to Troll then. happy
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Huh, guess the Apple zealots have been caught in a lie... again
NonZealot 13th Jul 2010
We keep getting told that Windows PCs need replacing every 2 years. Huh. Guess this has been proven wrong.
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
/A\V/ 13th Jul 2010
@NonZealot ...Can't... resist... feeding... troll...... comment... is... too... stupid... to... resist...

Who in their right mind would claim that you would have to replace a machine every two years? Wiping the drive every two years, yes, that's a good practice - no matter the OS.

Why are you such an anti-apple zealot in the first place? What's the purpose? What's YOUR purpose? IT'S A BLOODY COMPUTER.

Some people like apple machines. Some prefer *nix/BSD. Others prefer windows. Still others prefer Amiga, OS/2, BeOS and the rest of the lesser known stock.

Yet you seethe hatred and disgust at anyone who likes apple's machines? Perhaps it's this behaviour of yours and your ilk that leads to the fanatical zealotry of the apple supporters? Maybe, if people didn't feel such prosecution, they would be less likely to defend their chosen platform with such ferocity? Of course, if that were the case, you wouldn't have anything to justify your existence, would you?

Perhaps this could actually go to explain a lot of issues in the world. Yes. I believe all major conflicts can be blamed on the NonZealots out there. Congratulations - you are indirectly responsible for the slow destabilization of governments and rampant wonton destruction and fighting amongst nations.
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
rossdav@... 13th Jul 2010
@/A\V/
ROTFL!!! Nicely done!
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You might have hit the nail on the head
NonZealot 13th Jul 2010
Who in their right mind would claim that you would have to replace a machine every two years?

Apple zealots constantly claim this. But you are correct, they aren't in their right minds so to answer your question: no one in the right mind would say that. However, there are a lot of Apple zealot MS haters here and none of them are in their right minds. happy

Why are you such an anti-apple zealot in the first place?

You forgot to include the quotes. I'm an anti-"Apple Zealot" poster. I'm not anti-Apple. I'm on record as wanting to get an iPhone 4 and I already own a MacBook Pro which is a fantastic laptop once you install Windows 7 on it.

Knowing that, the rest of your post is utter garbage, sorry! happy

PS Odd I haven't seen you post this on any of the millions of anti-MS blogs here where thousands of Apple zealots go nuts over the latest Windows trojan horse? Maybe I just missed it?
  • Flagged
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
dh1760 13th Jul 2010
@/A\V/ ... more likely: rampant *wanton* destruction; although it's possible that NonZealot could also be responsible for the worldwide trashing of Chinese dumplings, as well! wink
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
Pete "athynz" Athens Updated - 13th Jul 2010
@NZ - you say that you are not Anti-Apple and yet you are cheering about the issues they've had with the latest iPhone... I believe the exact words were "I'm so happy about this". You've said you were happy when NTP sued them, when Nokia sued them, when HTC sued them and yet you claim here that you are not Anti Apple?
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@athynz: I'm very happy that the Apple zealots are in a tizzy
NonZealot 13th Jul 2010
yet you are cheering about the issues they've had with the latest iPhone

In so many ways, this IS Apple's Vista and I'm loving the fact that you guys finally get to taste some of the venom that you have been spitting for years (and when I say *you*, I mean Apple zealots... I'll happily admit that you are one of the cool ones... usually... happy ).

I totally agree that the blogosphere is blowing this one massively out of proportion and that the echo chamber is amplifying, amplifying, amplifying. I'm planning on buying an iPhone 4 which should tell you what I think of the actual issue. If you take a look at my posts, you'll see I never actually say anything bad about the iPhone 4. I only ever comment on Apple's reaction and the reaction of the Apple zealots and ZDNet bloggers.

Like I said, this is a fantastic show for me, never enjoyed the taste of popcorn more than I'm enjoying it now. This couldn't have gone better from a pure entertainment point of view. And I still can't wait for Apple to release the iPhone 4 in Canada. Should be any week now. happy
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
Barc777 13th Jul 2010
@/A\V/ "rampant wonton destruction"

Which is performed by the many hungry customers at Chinese restaurants.
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
/A\V/ Updated - 13th Jul 2010
moved post
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
/A\V/ 13th Jul 2010
@NonZealot - The only reason that "the rest of my post is utter garbage" is because someone finally called you out in a manner that you cannot just passive-agressively insult your way out of. As to the statement about the "millions of ant-MS" blogs, well, perhaps you just see what you wish, because i HAVE posted similar reactions to the anti-MS Zealots.

@dh1760 - Whoops! Blasted spell checker =P
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What form does the upgrade take?
boomchuck1 13th Jul 2010
We are still running XP on all of our machines, aside from 1 Mac and 1 Win 7 machine in my area. Economically it doesn't make any sense for us to buy and then use our time to do a clean install of Windows 7 on our workstations. There would be no actual gain to productivity since users can do everything with XP that they could with 7. Our upgrade with Win 7 will come with our next round of PC purchases.
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The dirty secret Microsoft doesn't want you to know
Dr_Zinj 13th Jul 2010
If you are running Windows XP, 95% of the world's users do not need to upgrade to Windows 7, and would not experience any measureable improvement if they did.

I'm running Windows XP at work right now doing database management, statistical analysis, and the usual office apps. It's fast, efficient, easy to use, and no need for a new learning curve/productivity increase.

I use Windows XP on half my home systems (the other half run W2K, and one on Linux). For 99.99% of the home user population, there will never be a need to change to Windows 7, nor any noticeable improvement if they did.
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
Dr_Zinj 13th Jul 2010
@Dr_Zinj
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
rossdav@... Updated - 13th Jul 2010
@Dr_Zinj

Totally agree. IT is more mature now and we realize that these supporting the Windows desktop has been a huge burden over the years. So many of us use Windows XP still because it is unimaginably hard to move to another OS (Mac, Linux, whatever). And yes, PC's have stabilized, meaning that 5 year old PC's still perform fine for the average user, and XP still runs on the newest ones. So no push to change.

I think a desktop change will have to happen within the next couple of years, but I think what we're seeing is that IT is evaluating whether to move to Windows 7, or whether to perhaps go to a desktop virtualization setup - radically changing the way desktops work and making them much more manageable. The desktop OS should be unimportant (e.g. webapps). I think IT is waiting it out for this technology to mature and will make the desktop change investment at that point. I see lots of interested in it and it makes a ton of sense to me (but I'm a UNIX guy, so I've been doing thin-clients via X-Windows for 25 years).

Like I've always said - as soon as Windows becomes UNIX, it will be a great OS! They're getting there slowly but surely!
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Doc - Care to make sense? Please...!
Wolfie2K3 13th Jul 2010
@Dr_Zinj
"If you are running Windows XP, 95% of the world's users do not need to upgrade to Windows 7, and would not experience any measureable improvement if they did."

So... If I am NOT running Windows XP, then would that change your assessment that 95% of the world's users don't need an upgrade? Cause I'm not running XP. Been running Windows 7 pretty much full time since the Win 7 Beta back in January 2009.

From my perspective, Windows XP was great. It had a long life. But it's time to take the old workhorse out and let him run around the pasture. Windows 7 runs just as fast, if not faster than XP on the same hardware. App compatibility is outstanding. Everything I've thrown at it just works. It's also a bit safer than XP when romaing the wild and wooly web.

As I've said before, the learning curve for Windows 7 is minimal. It takes maybe 5 minutes to learn the way the new taskbar works. It takes maybe a couple of hours to get used to it.

Most everything is still exactly in the same general place as it was before. The start button no longer says "START" on it - but that's not THAT big a change. The start menu's change a tiny bit. It's more efficient. If you want a word processor, just open the start button and type Word. All word processors will then be filtered for your convenience. You'll get an icon for MS Word, Wordpad, WordPerfect and any other word processors you might have installed.

It's fast, efficient, easy to use, and no need for a new learning curve/productivity increase.

No need for a productivity increase??? Did you think through that statement or did you just write something that sounded good..? Seriously... I don't know of too many company owners or managers who would agree with you on that. If something can save you a few steps and makes you more productive, that usually means you can get more work done in the same amount of time. In which case, they can make more money. And that's what the owners of most companies like to hear. And that's also good for workers as well. Especially when you go into said boss' office and ask for a raise. Odds are he would be more willing to give you one.

It sounds to me like you've never even given Windows 7 a try. Before you pronounce such ludicrous judgement on something, at least give it a spin before you go off and make yourself look silly - or worse.
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
jpdemers@... 13th Jul 2010
@Wolfie2K3: "As fast" ... "just a bit safer" ... OK, and this is worth how much money and hassle to most people? Productivity is a function of the application, not the OS, so no motivation there either. For productivity, you give us "just open the start button and type Word." And THEN you get a bunch of icons? Yeah, that beats the hell out of clicking on a desktop icon, which is what some 95% of day-to-day users do, 5 whole times a week. Considering how much time the average desk jockey spends interacting with the OS (as opposed to the applications), Win7 might pay for itself in about 375 years with all the saved mouse clicks. (Subtract the time it takes to do the upgrade from XP, and it's more like 975 years.) Sorry, but all the whiz-bang Mac-like eye candy does not add up to value. Sane people will continue to use XP until MSFT contrives to make it unusable.
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Enterprise isn't going to upgrade on your schedule
ahh so 14th Jul 2010
@Wolfie2K3
XP isn't gonna die for a long, long time to come. It's already had double the operational life of any other OS they've come up with in the last 20 years.

You can blame Micro$haft for that back in 2004-2005 when they abandoned Longhorn and decided to add Apple aero eye candy bloatware to XP and call it Vista instead.

That's why you have 74% XP numbers today. It's time to let M$ take responsibility for it's own actions and quit blaming others. Why don't you whine to them instead.
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p.s. Service Packs
Dr_Zinj 13th Jul 2010
You know, Microsoft could be charging $10 per yearly service pack and still make money without doing the whole wasted effort of trying to convince the world that their old, repainted plow horse is now a thoroughbred.
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# # RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
liverpool101 13th Jul 2010
I was at a major Lab company in Tampa, Fl earlier this year and over 50% of their workstations are still running Windows 2000; they haven't finished upgrading to XP yet.
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
sburnside 13th Jul 2010
We are finding that upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 does allow our existing computers to run more efficiently. However, because of the time involved, since there is no direct upgade path, we have elected not to do a global upgrade of all computers. We only plan to upgrade existing computers on an as needed basis, and will incorporate Windows 7 as we replace old computers with new ones. I think if there was a more efficient upgrade/rollout process, Microsoft would see more people jumping on board sooner.
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RE: 74% of work PCs still run XP, and they're 4.4 years old
tomlin21-24319035676893835085146735905770 11th Oct
Thankful reebok jersey i these days uncovered this excellent web-site, are usually certain to conserve it so i can browse commonly.

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