Stampede away from XP expected imminently

The majority of firms that still favour Windows XP are expected to migrate soon

IT leaders are facing up to a large desktop migration project over the coming years, as troves of business users will be moving on from the ubiquitous Windows XP operating system.

According to a recent survey from Forrester Research, six out of 10 corporate desktops are still running Windows XP 10 years after the operating system was first launched.

But with support for XP pencilled to end in 2014, based on Microsoft’s software lifecycle policy, many firms are likely to migrate before then.

Forrester’s figures show some signs of encouragement for Microsoft, with XP on nine per cent fewer corporate desktops last year. The number of Windows 7 users in the enterprise is also creeping up and now accounts for one in five enterprise PC operating systems.

“Most [firms] are in the late planning stage or early deployment phase of their next-generation desktop,” said Forrester analyst Benjamin Gray.

The report also noted that enterprise users were increasingly moving away from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser, with Mozilla’s Firefox, Google’s Chrome and even Apple’s Safari gaining popularity among business users.

Forrester’s report was based on analysis of more than 400,000 computers at 2,500 firms across the globe.

In 2009, Forrester had expected the majority of firms to migrate from XP by 2012.