Over three quarters of firms are still using XP, says survey

Plan-Net finds 87 per cent are still using Microsoft's Exchange 2003 for email

Survey finds 44 per cent will stay with Windows XP

A new survey on firms' attitudes to Microsoft's Windows 7 has found that 76 per cent are still running Windows XP Professional, 10 years after its release.

The survey carried out by IT services vendor Plan-Net also found that 44 per cent are not planning to upgrade to Windows 7.

Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 no longer gets security updates or non-security hotfixes from Microsoft, but firms applying Service Pack 3 will get extended support until April 2014.

Plan-Net says companies were deciding not to upgrade to Windows 7 as a result of reduced budgets, wariness around later versions such as Windows Vista which has been heavily criticised, and other IT projects being given priority.

Computing analysed the likely upgrade costs earlier this month.

Plan-Net's technical services director Adrian Polley said that the unstable economy and reduced finances have made organisations wary of investments deemed non essential.

Plan-Net's survey also found that 87 per cent of firms are still using Microsoft's email server, Exchange 2003 or even earlier versions.

"Exchange 2003 and earlier versions don't support virtualisation or 64-bit systems. An upgrade would allow organisations to achieve cost-efficiencies," said Plan-Net.

The survey polled 100 IT decision makers working in City-based businesses with more than 250 users.