For any large organization eyeballing a Windows 7 deployment, the $64,000 question (which might actually turn out to be more like a $640,000 question) is whether to upgrade existing machines or deploy new ones with Windows 7 already installed.

Any company that tried the upgrade route when going from XP to Vista probably feels once bitten, twice shy. And with good reason: Vista performed poorly on "old" (i.e. underpowered) hardware.

However, according to a new study, nearly 90 percent of corporate PCs can run Windows 7, and two-thirds can enable such advanced features as Aero. (In comparison, just six percent of PCs could run Aero when Vista was released.)

That suggests organizations would do well to go the upgrade route, and perhaps they would. But ZDNet's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes advises caution when drawing conclusions about the data, which "says nothing about software compatibility" or device compatibility.

Indeed, he says, the data raises some important questions, including:

• "If 88% of PCs can run Windows 7, then that means that could also, technically, run Vista. So why aren't they?
• "The data seems to suggest that there's been a lot of hardware upgrading going on over the last few years, but users have been sticking with XP. Why?
• "Why are so many PCs running obsolete OSes? That's just crazy on so may levels."

Well, okay, those questions are more dumb than important. Did he really just ask why corporations haven't been deploying Vista? Does anyone not know the answer to that?

We think that most businesses would be wise to look at phasing out end-of-life PCs running XP and investing in new systems running Windows 7. That affords any number of benefits: refreshed warranties, happier workers (who doesn't love a new PC?), increased productivity (owing to the faster hardware and newer OS), and so on. Food for thought.

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