Afraid of Change: Getting Users to Upgrade from XP to Win7

 
 
SC Magazine UK’s online news editor, Dan Raywood asks Don Leatham, senior director of solutions and strategy at Lumension about the value – and dangers – of running outdated operating systems.
Q: If we researched operating systems, it is likely we would find a lot of people running ‘outdated’ operating systems. What is the best policy to get end-users to upgrade?
A: Yes, you would find a large number of business users still on XP. In fact, Tami Reller, corporate vice president and CFO for Microsoft, recently said that number is 74%.
The fact that Windows 7 has a superior security model compared to XP should be the driving force for any upgrade policy. However, the reality is operating system upgrades are often driven by hardware replacement cycles or application upgrades that require the new operating system. Resistance to upgrading may also be due to outdated historical assumptions and lack of knowledge over the performance and compatibility. Over the years, people have been trained to think they need a new computer to run a new version of Windows. (continue reading...)