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Nearly all IT professionals (96 percent) are interested in Windows 10, and 60 percent of IT departments have tested or are actively testing the new operating system, according to a survey of more than 500 respondents by Spiceworks.
The survey also found that 40 percent of companies plan to begin rolling out Windows 10 within the first year of its release and an additional 33 percent expect to begin deploying Windows 10 within two years.
The vast majority (94 percent) of respondents’ companies are running Windows 7 today, and on average, Windows 7 is running on 77 percent of organizations’ laptops and desktops.
“Typically, as is the case with any new operating system, IT professionals want to wait to make sure that all the kinks are worked out before implementing it across their organization,” Peter Tsai, Spiceworks’ IT content marketing manager, told eWEEK. “However, early reviews of Windows 10 are positive, and survey feedback from the Spiceworks Community indicates that Windows 10 will be popular among IT departments, with the potential to achieve high adoption rates relatively quickly.”
The survey also found that Windows 8/8.1, Windows XP, and Mac OS trail Windows 7 by significant margins, with Windows 8/8.1 running on 18 percent, Windows XP on 14 percent, and Mac OS on 10 percent of companies’ laptops and desktops.
In the smartphone and tablet markets, the survey found Apple iOS and Google Android are the overwhelming favorites.
Eighty-one and 77 percent of IT professionals said iOS and Android-based mobile devices are running in their organization, while Windows and Windows Mobile is used in a third of organizations.
However, 48 percent of IT professionals said new Windows 10 features made them slightly or much more likely to consider Windows on tablets and smartphones.
While new Windows 10 features such as Cortana, the Edge browser, and Continuum interface draw consumer attention, just 8 percent of respondents said they were interested in the touch-optimized interface and 6 percent cited Cortana.
When asked for their general impressions of Microsoft’s new browser Edge, previously known as Spartan, a quarter of respondents said they were somewhat to very positive;, 23 percent said they were neutral, and nearly half said they didn’t know enough about the new browser to have formed an opinion. Four percent of respondents were somewhat to very negative.
Just under two-thirds (64 percent) of IT professionals said they were most interested in the return of the Start button, while 55 percent cited the free upgrade from Windows 7 and 8/8.1, and 51 percent referenced enhanced security.
However, nearly eight in 10 (79 percent) cited hardware and software compatibility as their biggest concern, followed by early release bugs; user training;, lack of third -party support, and the time it would take to complete the upgrade process.