Windows 7 and your business

It conducted a pilot and business/cost analysis that suggested more than $100 could be saved per machine, per year in addition to boosting productivity by 20 hours per user, per year - through a move to Windows 7. It expected 1,000 of its machines to be running the OS by the end of 2009 and have migrated its entire PC estate to Windows 7 by 2011.

"By deploying Windows 7, we take big strides toward our goal of establishing a highly mobile and agile workforce," said Lee Nicholls, global solutions director at Getronics.

If you do only one thing, deploy Windows 7. It will save you a significant amount of money and pay for itself.

"Windows 7 capabilities, which automate many aspects of IT operations such as data management and security tasks, remove serious obstacles to the development and distribution of our solutions worldwide."

He added: "Why did we migrate to Windows 7? It provides the robust desktop environment we need to keep our highly mobile workforce secure, agile, and productive, no matter where they work. And, Windows 7 delivers strong business value. If you do only one thing, deploy Windows 7. It will save you a significant amount of money and pay for itself."

Windows XP is still used on around 600 million computers, with 37.19 market share, according to figures from Net Applications in June 2013. However, making a jump straight to Windows 8 seems like a mountain to climb filled with obstacles. The move to Windows 7, however, can be much smoother and pain-free.

Vista had been designed as the successor to XP. It has been created to wean users off XP and give them a huge appetite for a new computing experience. But it just didn't happen. So Microsoft essentially went back to the drawing board and created Windows 7.

This OS, although not the current generation, now offers a compelling argument to migrate away from XP provided you have the right tools and support in place.