Microsoft is looking to outperform the adoption of Windows XP with Windows Vista. In fact, just in the business environment, the Redmond Company aims to deploy Vista on no less than 20% of corporate desktops in the first year.

Marker analysis company Gartner has stretched the adoption of Windows Vista over a period of three years. According to Gartner, Windows Vista will not outpace Windows XP sooner than 2010. "More than half of our clients are telling us that they're only bringing in Vista as part of their regular hardware refresh," Gartner analyst Michael Silver said.

The fact that Microsoft will place Vista in the spot light in the detriment of XP, marketing the new operating system core features: deployment, manageability and security will deliver little impact as the corporate upgrades are connected with routine three to five years hardware replacement cycles. In fact, Gartner predicts that in the business ecosystem, the hardware upgrades will be accompanied with Vista upgrades.

Moreover, Microsoft is enabling its Software Assurance customers with "downgrade rights." Gartner expects SA clients to exercise their contractual "downgrade rights" in order to stick with XP even throughout a hardware upgrade. Gartner forecasted that approximately 22% of machines to be sold in 2007 will feature windows XP.

"For most organizations, we believe 12 to 18 months of testing, planning and piloting will be required before mainstream Vista and Office 2007 deployment begins. Organizations need to understand their software inventory, do internal testing, and work with independent software vendors (ISVs) to understand their support policies and timelines. If you haven't started this process yet, consider starting now. The sooner you want to begin deploying Windows Vista and Office 2007, the sooner you need to begin testing. Organizations that run Windows 2000 and are trying to skip Windows XP should have already begun. Organizations that want to deploy in early 2008 need to start shortly," advised Gartner.

In fact, Gartner predicts that less than 5% of systems at a global scale will install a business version of Vista, while 47% will run XP and another 10% Windows 2000. Garner concluded that the percentage of Windows Vista will grow to 15% only in 2008, with the total adoption rate of Vista to outpace XP by 2010.