October 28th, 2009

Microsoft's Windows 7 challenge: Selling Live services (without being sued)

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 8:57 am

Categories: Advertising, Channel, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Resellers, System builders, Vista, Windows 7, Windows Live, Windows client

Tags: Antitrust, Microsoft Windows Live, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Corporate Law, Operating Systems, Software, Business Operations, Mary Jo Foley

I was wondering how aggressively — or not — Microsoft would market Windows Live services once it began selling Windows 7.

The answer seems to be somewhat aggressively. But is that tepid enough to keep the Softies out of antitrust hot water?

For more than a year now, Microsoft has been pulling certain features out of Windows and making them available as free “rich” services. The suite of these services is known as Windows Live Essentials (WLE) and includes Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Live Writer, Messenger and Mail.

Although Microsoft officials take care to avoid saying that removing features and offering them separately might be motivated in any way by the threat of antitrust suits, I’d think this would be one (big) definite upside for the WLE strategy/approach. The downside (for Microsoft) around this decoupling is that the company needs to find ways to get users to understand that these functions are available for free download, or, in some cases, preloaded by PC makers on new machines.

I asked Microsoft officials how they intended to let consumers know about the existence of Windows Live Essentials (WLE), a bundle of several Windows Live services meant to complement Windows 7, and received via e-mail this list of “ways we are educating consumers about the offering”:

• The most recent version of Windows Live Essentials (WLE) can be downloaded from download.live.com
• Most large OEMS will ship WLE on Windows 7 PCs.  For example, we have already announced that Dell will ship WLE on its machines, and we expect to announce other specific partners in the coming months.
• Windows.com and Microsoft.com both include information on WLE and where to go to download it
• Windows 7 users can find a link to download (download.live.com) WLE within the Control Panel.  An easy way to find this link is who search to type Windows Live Essentials into the Start Menu search bar
• We offer WLE as an Optional Update through the Microsoft Update program
• Customers who are enrolled in Windows Update will receive automatic upgrades to any WLE applications they have installed on their PC
• WLE is highlighted in the Getting Started experience within Windows for new PC purchasers

One way Microsoft also is getting the word out, which company officials didn’t mention, is by featuring WLE on new “Signature” PCs that are sold through Microsoft’s own Store.

As Todd Bishop over at TechFlash noted recently, the Windows 7 PCs that Microsoft is highlighting on the Microsoft online store come with a number of Microsoft software and service offerings — including WLE — preloaded. (The Signature PCs also include Microsoft Security Essentials, Silverlight, Bing 3D Maps, Zune 4.0, plus a few select third-party wares, like Adobe Flash and Reader.) Signature PCs include systems from Sony, HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo and other vendors.

I’m surprised we haven’t seen Microsoft push WLE more than through some rather vague mentions by Microsoft spokesperson of the year, the now-five-year-old Kylie. But maybe the specter of looming antitrust busters is keeping the Softies from going all-out with a splashy WLE campaign.

Do you think any of the ways Microsoft is promoting WLE — including the new Signature PCs –might leave open loopholes for Microsoft’s competitors to run screaming to the authorities?

October 27th, 2009

Microsoft makes final version of Windows compatibility toolset available

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 12:28 pm

Categories: App Compatibility, Corporate strategy, Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 /("Windows 7 Server"), Windows Server 2008/ Windows Server Longhorn, Windows client, Windows server

Tags: Microsoft Windows Server, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

In September, Microsoft unveiled a beta of a toolset that was designed to improve compatibility between Vista and Windows 7 (as well as Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2). The Redmondians made available on October 27 the final version of that tool, known as the Platform Update for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista.

The Platform Update — which is a set of runtime libraries — includes the Windows Ribbon and Animation Manager Library; DirectX updates for hardware acceleration; DirectCompute for hardware-accelerated parallel computing support; the XPS printing library; the Windows Automation API; and the Windows Portable Devices Platform, which standardizes data transfers across apps and portable devices.

Microsoft officials said the primary target for the Platform Update (on the client side, at least) are developers doing “games and multimedia applications that take advantage of the new features in DirectX 11, and a lot of mobile phones that wirelessly sync with music applications like Rhapsody using MTP over Bluetooth,” in the words of a corporate spokesperson.

Microsoft is planning to make the Platform Update to all Windows Vista customers over Windows Update, Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), System center Configuration Manager and “other third-party desktop management tools” so that developers who use the Platform libraries in building their products “can feel confident knowing it is broadly deployed.”

Here are the pertinent informational links on what was released today:

Platform Update for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista

Remote Desktop Connection 7.0 client update

Windows Management Framework Core

October 24th, 2009

Selected testers get new build of Microsoft Security Essentials

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 9:38 am

Categories: Anti-piracy, Code names, Corporate strategy, Security, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Tester, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows 7, Operating Systems, Security, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft has made available for download on October 24 by a select group of testers the first build of its next release of the free Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) anti-malware product.

The new test build, No. 1.0.1676.0, is available via the Microsoft Connect site by those contacted by the company. The MSE team sent invitations for the “ongoing” beta of MSE to a subset of the Windows 7 test group earlier this month, telling those notified that they would hear back by November 1 as to whether or not they’d be getting the new test bits.

One tester who downloaded the build today told me the only difference he noticed was the new build number. Ars Technica is reporting that there are test versions available for Windows XP 32-bit (8.62MB), Windows Vista/7 32-bit (4.29MB), and Windows Vista/7 64-bit (4.72MB). Ars said that every installer grew by 0.01MB with this new build.

Here’s a copy of the e-mail message the MSE team is sending to some testers today (which one tester shared with me):

From: Microsoft Security Essentials Beta
Date: 2009/10/24
Subject: Microsoft Security Essentials Ongoing Beta Invitation
To: xxxx

The Microsoft Security Essentials Ongoing Beta Program needs you!

Interested in joining the fight against viruses, spyware, and other PC health dangers? Help improve Microsoft® Security Essentials, Microsoft’s new antimalware solution for consumers, by becoming an Ongoing Beta program tester. As part of the Microsoft Security Essentials Ongoing Beta program, you will have the opportunity to explore new builds before the public sees them, submit bugs, and give feedback. Your feedback helps Microsoftto make its software and services the best that they can.

If you are interested, please click on the link below, sign-in with Live ID/password and install the Ongoing Beta build.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE Microsoft Security Essentials Ongoing Beta Program

Best Regards,

Microsoft Security Essentials Team

Microsoft made available for download at the end of September the final version 1 of MSE. MSE (codenamed “Morro”) is the replacement for Windows Live OneCare and a superset of Windows Defender. Microsoft officials have said it will work on Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Microsoft is targeting MSE at customers who are unwilling and unable to pay for security software. Company officials have said they believed it was worth offering customers a free product to help thwart security breaches on unprotected Windows PCs that potentially could be used to infect other users’ systems.

I recently asked some of my Twitter followers and blog readers what they’d like to see in the next version of MSE. Here are a few of their responses:

PhilltheChill: “v2 of MSE should have integration within Outlook and Windows Live Mail - The icing on the cake”

nvyseal: “knock down that spike in MsMpEng.exe. http://bit.ly/VXvyr”

mgeddes: “It doesn’t show a history of scans (that I can find anyway). It would be nice to know if it did a full scan last week for instance. I have them scheduled but I don’t really have proof they ran. Maybe it puts something in the event viewer (haven’t looked), but easy and up front is better. Also, move towards business support like WSUS. (management, AD & workgroup support, reporting etc). The non-free versions from other companies always leave a lot to be desired.”

Other new feature requests for the MSE team?

October 23rd, 2009

Windows and Office cash cows take a hit in Microsoft's first quarter

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 7:17 am

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, Gaming, OEMs, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, Resellers, System builders, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client, Xbox, Xbox Live

Tags: Revenue, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Corp., EDD, Microsoft Windows, Operational Accounting, Microsoft Windows 7, Operating Systems, Software, Finance

A day after Microsoft launched Windows 7, its first quarter 2010 results are in. And both Windows and Office — Microsoft’s biggest cash cows — took a hit.

For the quarter, which ended on September 30, Microsoft’s net income was down 18 percent, to $3.57 billion, and revenues down 14 percent, to $12.92 billion — both compared to the first quarter earnings for fiscal 2009.

Because Microsoft beat analysts’ expectations for earnings-per-share and Microsoft has continued to prove it can cut costs, the company’s stock price was up this morning. And because of strong pre-orders for Windows 7 (which didn’t go on sale at retail until October 22, which is during Microsoft’s next quarter), Microsoft’s press release is highlighting “the strong consumer demand for Windows,” even though the Windows division’s revenues were down to $3.98 $2.62 billion from $4.28 billion from the comparable quarter a year ago.

Microsoft said the first quarter of 2010 was the biggest quarter for Windows sales ever. But the numbers aren’t reflecting that fact, primarily because of $1.5 billion worth of deferrals from programs it offered PC makers to convince customers to keep buying Vista PCs prior to the launch of Windows 7. Company officials also attributed the lower Windows earnings to more sales of netbooks and a decline in premium editions of Windows sold to business customers. Here’s what the company wrote in its 10-Q report, released on October 23:

“Windows Division revenue decreased primarily as a result of the deferral of approximately $1.5 billion of revenue related to the Windows 7 Upgrade Option and sales of Windows 7 to OEMs and retailers before general availability in the second quarter of fiscal year 2010. Including revenue and units associated with the Windows 7 Deferral, OEM revenue decreased $207 million or 6%, while OEM license units increased 6%. The decline in OEM revenue reflected the 8 percentage point decrease in the OEM premium mix to 63%, primarily driven by growth of licenses related to sales of netbook PCs, a decline in premium editions sold to business customers, and changes in geographic mix. Based on our estimates, total worldwide PC shipments from all sources grew approximately 0% to 2% through growth in both emerging and developed markets.”

Things weren’t quite as bad for the Microsoft Business Division, which sells Office and Microsoft’s Dynamics ERP/CRM products. But sales were still down, even though the Office 2010 release is still quite a number of months away. (It is expected to ship in mid-2010.) The company attributed the revenue decrease to a decline in licenses sold for Office 2007 and to a shift to lower-priced products among consumers. The particulars, again, from the 10Q:

“MBD revenue decreased reflecting decreased consumer and business revenue, and included an unfavorable impact from foreign currency exchange rates of $88 million or two percentage points. Consumer revenue decreased $390 million or 34%, primarily as a result of pricing promotions in the first quarter of fiscal year 2009 that drove increased licensing in that period, a shift to lower-priced products, and a decline in licensing the 2007 Microsoft Office system. Business revenue decreased $161 million or 4%, primarily reflecting a decline in licensing the 2007 Microsoft Office system to transactional business customers and a 6% decrease in Microsoft Dynamics revenue, offset in part by growth in multi-year volume licensing agreement revenue. The growth in multi-year volume licensing agreement revenue primarily reflects recognition of deferred revenue from previously signed agreements.”

Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division’s revenues were flat for the quarter. EDD is responsible for Xbox, PC games, Zunes, keyboards/mice and other hardware, and Windows Mobile sales. EDD revenue was flat, with growth in Xbox 360 and games offsetting decreased revenue from other parts of the business. From the 10Q:

“Non-gaming revenue decreased $98 million or 14%, primarily reflecting decreased sales of PC hardware products, Zune digital music and entertainment devices and services, and embedded device platforms. Foreign currency exchange rates accounted for a $35 million or two percentage point decrease in revenue.”

Microsoft’s online services unit continued to lose money, and the Server division’s revenues were relatively flat for the quarter.

This quarter reflects changes by Microsoft in its reporting structure, with Windows Live now part of the Windows client unit, and mobile services moved to Entertainment and Devices.

October 22nd, 2009

Microsoft to ease Windows 7 upgrades to netbooks with USB key solution

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 10:19 am

Categories: App Compatibility, Channel, Code names, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Resellers, System builders, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Corp., USB, Netbook, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Operating Systems, Software, Hardware, Mary Jo Foley

Remember the rumors earlier this year that Microsoft was going to deliver Windows 7 on a thumb drive? Well, the rumors were correct — sort of…

On October 22, Microsoft announced it will enable netbook users who want to upgrade from XP (or Vista) to Windows 7 to use a special version of Windows 7 preloaded on a USB stick.

(I have no idea whether this has any connection to the rumored “StartKey” project I wrote about back in 2008. StartKey, the way it was originally portrayed to me, was more of an initiative to put Windows and Windows Live settings on a USB stick.)

Microsoft officials confirmed to News.com that it will make available an online tool, starting on October 22, “that will walk users through the process of moving a downloaded copy of Windows 7 onto a USB drive, be that a memory stick or portable hard drive.”

Microsoft officials sent me the following statement when I asked for more details on the new tool:

“A recurring question is whether we’re going to provide any special tools to help customers install Windows 7 on PC’s that lack a DVD drive, such a netbook PC. Today, Microsoft is announcing the upcoming availability of a free tool to help our netbook PC customers (without DVD drives) install Windows 7. Once a customer has purchased and downloaded their copy of Windows 7 from the Microsoft online store, they can use the tool to create either a bootable USB drive or a DVD using the download. This new resource, known as the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (WUDT) will be freely downloadable from the Microsoft Store as well as the Microsoft Download Center beginning on October 22nd.

“This tool will be available to support localized versions of Windows 7 including Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese. Customers who want to learn more about the USB/DVD Download Tool can visit www.microsoftstore.com/win7usb.”

There’s more information about and a screen shot of the new tool in this Windows Team Blog post, as well.

October 22nd, 2009

Amazon to release Kindle reader for Windows PCs in November

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 9:55 am

Categories: Corporate strategy, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: PC, Amazon.com Inc., Windows PC, Kindle, Windows Kindle App, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows 7, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft managed to keep a couple of news nuggets under wraps until the actual launch of the product on October 22. The most interesting to me was that Amazon is working on a Kindle reader application that will work on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 machines.

The beta of the Kindle reader will be released internationally some time in November, said Laurent Selier, Senior Product Line Manager for Kindle, who was demoing the app at the Windows 7 launch event in New York City today. Users interested in notification about the beta can sign up at Amazon’s Kindle for PC site.

The beta and the final version of the app will be available for free and will allow users to sync their downloaded books and other content across iPhones, Windows PCs and Kindle devices.

(I asked Selier if Amazon was planning to release a Windows Mobile version of the Kindle reader any time soon and he said he had nothing to say. But Amazon did announce today that it is working on a version for the Blackberry and Macs, as well.)

Microsoft and Amazon are showing the Kindle reader running on a large screen touch-enabled device, and said they think users would be interested in viewing certain kinds of content — like text books and cookbooks — in this way. The more obvious and natural platform for the Windows-based Kindle reader would be a laptop, netbook or Tablet PC. But I’d think most PCs would be too heavy and hot for me to want to make them my main e-book reading device.

Amazon, unsurprisingly, isn’t positioning the Windows-based Kindle app as a replacement for its Kindle device. Instead, as it does currently with the iPhone, it is positioning it as a complement to a Kindle reader. That said, users don’t have to have a Kindle to use the Windows Kindle app. All they need is an Amazon account.

The Windows Kindle app is being optimized to run on Windows 7 and will support multi-touch and JumpLists. Users won’t be able to annotate their Kindle content on Windows PCs in this beta; they will be able to view their annotations made from iPhones and Kindle devices on the Windows version, however. There also is currently no text-to-speech functionality in the Windows version of the Kindle reader.

I asked Microsoft officials whether they were talking to Barnes & Noble about the creation of a similar “Nook” e-reader app for Windows and was told there was nothing to say at this time, but that Microsoft is always talking to a variety of companies about new ways to take advantage of the Windows platform.

October 22nd, 2009

Was Windows 7 totally your idea?

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 6:21 am

Categories: Advertising, Apple, Corporate strategy, Vista, Windows 7, Windows client

Tags: Advertisement, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Crispin, Porter + Bogusky — the ad agency that is behind a variety of Microsoft’s recent ad campaigns (everything from the confounding Gates/Seinfeld skits, to the  Laptop Hunters, to the newest Kylie happy talk series) — is launching yet another group of ads starting this week.

The new campaign, which kicks off  Thursday in six countries, is “I’m a PC and Windows 7 was my idea.” The thought behind the message is that Windows 7 was created out of user feedback and complaints: They wanted an operating system that was faster, less complicated, smaller, more secure. And Windows 7 is the result.

Blogger Long Zheng noted that one of Microsoft employees featured in the video clip from the campaign is Chaitanya Sareen, responsible for developing the new Windows 7 taskbar.

The new campaign will include TV, print ads, banner ads, posters/billboards and branded-entertainment elements, according to The New York times. I saw one of the posters on a bus-stop kiosk here in New York yesterday and I have to admit it left me scratching my head, wondering who the guy was in the picture who was claiming Windows 7 was his idea…

The new campaign provides a new way for Microsoft to put Vista behind it, without actually disparaging Vista by name. But it’s undeniable that   Vista is the operating system  about which most of these user complaints is targeted.

What do you think of the “totally my idea” campaign?  And what do you expect Apple’s reaction to the new ads to be?

October 21st, 2009

Microsoft and PC makers introduce Windows 7 offers for consumers

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 1:16 pm

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Resellers, System builders, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Windows 7 Family Pack, Student Offer, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft is really turning up the consumer-focused volume on the Windows 7 launch on October 22 — despite the fact that the company makes a lot of money from selling Windows to business users, either via volume-license agreements and/or various other channels.

Why so much attention on retail — where Microsoft admittedly garners the least amount of Windows revenues? Microsoft officials believe if they can win over consumers with Windows 7, these consumers will push their workplaces to move to Windows 7 more quickly. There’s also, undoubtedly, a large helping of Apple envy/fear that’s part of Microsoft’s consumer push.

To kick off the launch activities, Microsoft unveiled on October 21 a number of retail deals for the product that it has forged with some of its PC partners and retail outlets. Microsoft is calling the promotion “7 Days of Windows 7.”  Company officials said to expect more Windows 7 deals to be added throughout the coming week and to check back on Windows.com if you’re in the market for new hardware, upgrades, support, etc.)

Day 1 (October 22) offers include:

• Best Buy offering Full home technology remodel, handyman included. Best Buy PC Home Makeover
• HP laptop, netbook, desktop and monitor package with Windows 7. Geek Squad wireless home network with router and new PC setup is included for $1,199.00
• Dell Studio XPS 13. Save more than $100.00
• Acer AZ5610-U9072 23″ Touch All-in-One (with Windows Touch) for $880.00
• With the Buy a PC, Get a Discounted Upgrade offer, customers who buy a new PC running Windows 7 Home Premium can upgrade a Windows XP- or Windows Vista-based PC they already own with a discounted box copy of Windows 7. This offer will run through Jan. 2, 2010.
• The Windows 7 Family Pack is available tomorrow in select countries while supplies last. With this offer, consumers can buy three Upgrade licenses of Windows 7 for one price.
• The Student Offer begins tomorrow. For a limited time, the Windows 7 Student Offer gives college and university students in the U.S. and select markets worldwide the opportunity to purchase Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade or Windows 7 Professional Upgrade for a discount.

I’m weighing which Windows 7 machine to buy and am open to suggestions. I’m looking for something that’s lightweight and very durable. (I’m actually considering buying both a netbook and a laptop, making the laptop my primary machine and the netbook what I take on the road.) I don’t care about running games. I don’t want or need touch. I do value battery life and don’t need anything flashy (though something with a little personality would be nice). Any suggestions out there?

One other note: If you’re in the New York City area on October 22, feel free to come by our post-launch party. It’s at the Antarctica Bar on Hudson and will start around 5 p.m. Lot of Microsoft bloggers — including Ed Bott of ZDNet, Paul Thurrott of the Windows SuperSite, Tom Warren of NeoWin and more will be there. We’re also expecting Most Valuable Professionals, testers, a few brave/crazy Softies and other hangers-on to show up to sample the seven beers on tap. Hope to see you there!

October 15th, 2009

Report: Microsoft prepping now for next beta of Security Essentials

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 7:29 am

Categories: Channel, Code names, Corporate strategy, Security, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Security, Ars Technica, Microsoft Corp., Beta, MSE, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows 7, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

With version one of its free anti-malware product just out the door, Microsoft is lining up testers for the next release of Microsoft Security Essentials.

That’s according to Ars Technica. Ars has posted what it says is an e-mail message that Microsoft sent to a subset of Windows 7 beta testers, inviting them to apply for an “ongoing beta” for MSE.

(Note: I am hedging this not because I don’t believe Ars, but because so far I can’t find anyone who has been invited. Update: I’ve  now seen the e-mail myself and know Ars is on the money, so I’ve removed the hedging. I’ve asked Microsoft for comment on the Ars story and e-mail but no word back so far.)

Here’s what Microsoft is telling potential beta applicants about its testing plans for the next release of MSE:

• Microsoft is planning to roll out an ongoing beta program for MSE that will include new private beta builds and lots more testers.
• The first group of invitees are participants of the Windows 7 beta program.
• Those who are not selected to participate in the beta (word will come by November 1, 2009) will have an opportunity to participate in a Customer Preview Program, available next year.

Microsoft made available for download at the end of September the final version 1 of MSE. MSE (codenamed “Morro”) is the replacement for Windows Live OneCare and a superset of Windows Defender. Microsoft officials have said it will work on Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Microsoft is targeting MSE at customers who are unwilling and unable to pay for security software. Company officials have said they believed it was worth offering customers a free product to help thwart security breaches on unprotected Windows PCs that potentially could be used to infect other users’ systems.

Any readers out there get an invitation to the next MSE beta? Whether you did or not, what are you hoping Microsoft introduces as part of MSE version 2?

October 13th, 2009

Gartner: Windows 7 is 'all but inevitable'

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 9:37 am

Categories: Corporate strategy, Service Pack, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Gartner Inc., Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Gartner Group analysts are telling business users that they should look at Windows 7 as an  “all but inevitable” Windows release.

Because “typically more than half of an organization’s applications still require Windows,” said Gartner researchers during an October 13 Webcast for Gartner clients and others, replacing Windows is not a short-term option.

Gartner analysts Michael Silver and Stephen Kleynhans shared these opinions and more during an hour focused on providing business users with guidance about Windows 7 features, licensing and deployment.

Assertions from their presentation:

• Windows 7 is not a major architectural release; it’s a polishing of Windows Vista. Still, for businesses, there are “good things to be had” in Windows 7, including AppLocker, BitLocker to Go, BrancheCache, better User Account Control settings, an updated user interface and support for HomeGroups.
• Business users should be cognizant of the downgrade/upgrade gotchas around Windows 7. For users who don’t have Software Assurance (SA) contracts, Microsoft’s limits on downgrades to XP (18 months from Windows 7’s release or until the time Windows 7 Service Pack (SP) 1 is released — whichever is earlier) could be problematic. If you don’t have SA and don’t purchase new PCs with a Windows 7 license within this window, you could end up paying $120 to $200 per PC for an upgrade license if you aren’t ready to deploy Windows 7 right off the bat.
• While Windows XP’s extended support phase doesn’t end until 2014, third-party application support for a new operating system typically begins to wane two years after the end of mainstream support. This means the XP “danger zone” is 2013 and beyond.
• There’s no need to wait for Windows 7 SP1 before starting to plan and test Windows 7. Because Microsoft releases most fixes and updates regularly over Windows Update/Automatic Update, there’s no need to wait for SP1, which is basically a rollup of all these fixes. Microsoft officials aren’t saying when they are planning to release SP1 for Windows 7, but Gartner is calculating it’ll be some time in mid-2010, according to their charts.
• Companies should budget 12 to 18 months to test and prepare for a new operating system release. Because Windows 7 had “a good beta,” that period may be slightly shorter. But expect a 12-month window between Windows 7’s release to manufacturing (which was July) and “maturity.” Maturity, in this case, means full ISV support; the availability of sufficient training resources and a significant amount of “expertise to be built up in the market.”

The Gartner folks conducted a few online polls during today’s Webinar. According to one, 59 percent of the particpants never teted and ended up skipping Vista and another 24 percent tested Vista but still ended up skipping it. Those who did deploy Vista are likely to encounter significantly lower migration costs than those who didn’t, Gartner said. Here’s the chart with their calculations. (Click on the chart to enlarge.):

Another poll, which asked when Webcast participants planned to deploy Windows 7, found that 21 percent are planning to deploy in the first half of calendar 2010; 30 percent in the second half of 2010; 23 percent in the first half of 2011; and 20 percent some time beyond that. (Six percent of those polled said they plan to deploy in calendar 2009.)

Unlike consumers, businesses have not been early adopters of 64-bit Windows releases. Gartner’s online poll regarding business plans for 64-bit versions of Windows 7 found 34 percent still planning to stick with 32-bit Windows 7 and 25 percent undecided, but learning toward 32-bit. Another 28 percent of those polled said they were undecided, but leaning toward a 64-bit Windows 7 variant, and 13 percent saying they planning to go primarily 64-bit. Gartner’s analysts noted that 64-bit does proide more address space and access to more physical RAM, but offered users “no major benefit changes,” as well as possible lack of availability of security, VPN and other applications/services.

Gartner’s bottom-line recommendations for business users weighing what do do about Windows 7 (and when):

Many large enterprise customers still rely on Gartner for guidance. What do you think of the firm’s advice on Windows 7?