Tech Focus
7 Potential Obstacles to Windows 7 Bliss
 Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has called Windows 7 a 'stunning' release. Will the industry be stunned as well or stymied?
By Kevin McLaughlin
In Windows 7, Microsoft has meticulously ironed out most of the wrinkles that annoyed Vista users—making it leaner and better performing. But Microsoft has also made some puzzling decisions that could prove vexing for customers. There are reasons to believe that the industry's migration to the operating system (OS) could be something less than an enthusiastic stampede.
The following are seven potential obstacles that those who are thinking about migrating to Windows 7 would do well to consider.
Clean install for XP-to-Windows 7 upgrade
Microsoft isn't offering an in-place upgrade from XP to Windows 7 and will instead require users that want to upgrade existing hardware to perform a clean install. This requires users to back up their personal files to external storage, erase all data from the hard drive, install Windows 7, and then transfer their personal files back and reinstall their applications, including all updates.
Microsoft is taking a surprising amount of heat for this issue. It's a moot point for many customers that will move to Windows 7 on new hardware, and any solution provider worth its salt could do a clean install of Windows in their sleep. Still, for the technologically uninitiated, there's no doubt that clean installs will be time-consuming and complex.
XP is still the predominant OS in businesses, and even if a small fraction of users run into problems stemming from this decision, Microsoft could find itself back in a Windows damage-control mode with which it's all too familiar. The time and expense involved with Windows 7 upgrades couldn't come at a worse time for companies that are struggling to keep the lights on.
The economy
Windows 7 has been mostly well received by an industry that had every right to be skeptical after the Vista
debacle. However, companies that normally plan their Windows upgrades around new PC purchases are avoiding capital expenditures like the plague, and in light of the historically shaky economic situation, who can blame them?
Microsoft has reduced both the size and the memory footprint of Windows 7, and the result is an OS that runs well on smaller devices such as netbooks, as well as older hardware. That could be enough to convince companies to forgo new PC purchases and upgrade their current ones to Windows 7, but these firms will still run into time-related costs associated with the upgrade.
Any OS transition requires a level of testing and backup work that will take smaller businesses away from their core mission of serving customers. That obviously isn't an option for companies that are already on the brink. There's a serious question of how much time, money and other resources companies will be able to put forth given the current economic situation.
One of the main problems Microsoft faced with Vista is the fact that XP is a solid OS that meets the needs of a large percentage of the IT industry. XP is still the predominant OS in use among businesses, and according to Net Applications, Windows XP market share stood at 71.8 percent in August, compared with 18.8 percent for Vista. These numbers are sure to change once Microsoft releases Windows 7, but it could be a while before XP abdicates the throne.
Microsoft is desperately trying to move the industry away from XP. In April, Microsoft ended mainstream support for XP and now requires customers to pay for support on a per-incident basis. However, Microsoft will continue delivering XP security updates for free until 2014, which suggests that some companies with XP PCs could decide to keep running them until the hardware dies.
Several solution providers expect to sell more Windows 7 PCs than Vista PCs, but they also offer that many customers are still downgrading Vista PCs to XP. It is likely that unless they're blown away by the performance of Windows 7, some economy-weary customers could stay put with XP. If machines are doing what companies need them to do, and they aren't having problems, why change?
What's the business case for VARs?
The huge number of companies that skipped Vista and stayed with Windows XP translates into massive pent-up demand for Windows 7. This would seem to represent a lucrative opportunity for Microsoft channel partners that have experience in handling OS migrations. So why aren't VARs jumping up and down with excitement over the coming Windows 7 services flood?
Certainly, the Vista hangover is part of it. Partners had high hopes that Vista would lead to lucrative services opportunities, but for many VARs, these opportunities never materialized.
However, the bigger issue for VARs that don't sell PCs, and whose customers will move to Windows 7 through volume licensing agreements, is how much money the channel actually stands to make from Windows 7. Aside from Windows 7 readiness and total cost of ownership assessments, it's unclear at this point how much of a services bonanza the channel will actually reap.
That hasn't stopped Microsoft from trying to pump up the hype around Windows 7 services. In a recent Microsoft-sponsored study by IDC, the research firm predicts that for every dollar of revenue that Microsoft gets from US sales of Windows 7 until the end of 2010, partners will reap $18.51 in related products and services revenue. IDC also predicts that by the end of 2010, more than 2 million IT jobs will be related to Windows 7, representing one-fifth of IT jobs in the US.
If that sounds familiar, it should: IDC put out a very similar Microsoft-sponsored report that coincided with the Vista launch. And everyone knows how that turned out.
XP Mode adds complexity
Microsoft tried hard to convince its XP-using customers that the best migration path to Windows 7 was to move to Vista first. Eventually, though, Microsoft relented and said it would offer XP Mode with Windows 7, and that move won Microsoft praise for making life easier for small business customers.
XP Mode, a virtual Windows XP SP3 environment running under Windows Virtual PC, is designed to let small businesses upgrade to Windows 7 without breaking compatibility with their older productivity applications, which in many cases are custom-built. But while XP Mode seems a logical and shrewd approach to the issue of backward compatibility in Windows 7, its complexity could pose problems for the audience to which it is targeted.
Some experts have noted that running XP Mode on Windows 7 doubles the security software requirements for PCs and presents a bigger target for attackers. And in August, Richard Jacobs, CTO, Sophos—a security vendor, publicly called out Microsoft over the lack of built-in management in XP Mode, claiming that companies will find the management of virtual machines to be prohibitively complicated.
Earlier this year, the CRN Test Center also ran into problems after installing XP Mode and Virtual PC on a machine with a verified AMD-V virtualization processor. The Test Center was able to solve the issue by upgrading the BIOS, but small businesses may not have the time or resources to find their way out of the mess.
The Windows 7 SKU shell game
One of the many gripes customers and partners had about Vista was Microsoft's confusing array of six different versions—twice the number it offered with XP—each of which had its own set of features. With Windows 7, Microsoft insists that Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Home Premium will fit the needs of most customers, but it's also offering six different versions this time around. This begs the question of whether Microsoft heard any of the feedback that Vista customers offered on this particular point.
The sprawl of Windows 7 SKUs doesn't represent a barrier in and of itself, but in the opinion of some solution providers, Microsoft's marketing department still doesn't appear to grasp that multiple Windows SKUs creates confusion in the marketplace, and that this confusion could have a trickledown effect on Windows 7 adoption.
Microsoft seems to be unable or unwilling to stop playing the Windows feature shell game, in which it limits new features to premium SKUs in order to lure customers into volume licensing contracts. But in so doing, Microsoft is playing a dangerous game when it comes to security, according to solution providers.
Microsoft is touting the new security features in Windows 7 to get businesses to upgrade, but Windows 7 Professional—the version it expects most businesses will buy—won't include BitLocker (full disk encryption) or AppLocker (software restriction policy manager). Windows 7 Professional also won't include Direct Access, which securely connects mobile workers to corporate networks without VPN; or BranchCache, which stores frequently used data locally to improve network performance at remote locations. To get these features, customers will have to buy Windows 7 Enterprise, which is only available through volume licensing.
User Account Control
UAC was one of the most reviled aspects of Windows Vista, and Microsoft tweaked UAC in Windows 7 to reduce the frequency of alerts. Microsoft is to be commended for making UAC less annoying, but customers that move to Windows 7 from XP could still encounter UAC-related headaches. What's more, Microsoft has steadfastly refused to acknowledge possible security glitches in UAC that have arisen during Windows 7 testing, even when they've been reported by some of the company's most loyal followers.
In February, Windows 7 beta testers uncovered a pair of security flaws in UAC, and Microsoft, after some hemming and hawing, agreed to fix them. But in June, respected Microsoft blogger Long Zheng claimed that UAC in Windows 7 still contains a vulnerability that makes the default setting of Windows 7 UAC less secure than Vista UAC.
Zheng pointed out that that when the default security configuration of Windows 7 UAC is not to notify users of changes, applications without UAC alerts can run code or other applications with administrative privileges. Microsoft denied that this is a vulnerability and said it's simply the way Windows 7 was designed, which is exactly the stance it took with the first two UAC vulnerability reports.
To date, the software giant hasn't issued a fix for the UAC flaw, despite growing evidence that it's something that needs to be dealt with.
In June, Windows 7 tester Leo Davidson created proof-of-concept code that demonstrates the potential impact of the UAC flaw, and in August, the beta for Microsoft's Security Essentials product flagged the proof-of-concept code as malware.
UAC is Microsoft's baby, so it makes sense that company officials would be quick to defend it. However, when criticisms are being leveled at UAC from some of Microsoft's loyal disciples, perhaps it's time for Microsoft to consider the possibility that they might have a valid point.
Microsoft says it learned from Vista
It takes guts to admit when you're wrong. Microsoft did just that in acknowledging that it dropped the ball with Vista by not getting hardware and software partners involved early enough with Vista testing. Microsoft also admitted that it got carried away by adding too many features to Vista and not paying enough attention to deadlines.
Why, then, are Microsoft's Vista mea culpas an obstacle to Windows 7? Microsoft may have confessed to its Vista missteps, but when a company can bring its kind of marketing might to bear, it's worth questioning whether it's simply sending the message that it thinks customers want to hear.
Let's not forget that there are plenty of executives inside Microsoft who still believe that Vista's problems had more to do with marketing than with technological shortcomings. Microsoft fought long and hard and spent vast sums in its efforts to portray Vista as the unfortunate victim of negative early perceptions. Last year's Project Mojave was one particularly telling example of the lengths to which Microsoft was willing to go to prove this point. And does anyone remember Vista Capable?
Microsoft played the victim card with Vista as long as it could, but as soon as it revealed plans for Windows 7, Microsoft's message changed to one of contrition. But Microsoft doesn't see itself as a learner of lessons, but rather, as the one who teaches them.
Windows 7 may end up being the greatest version of Windows ever, but don't think for a minute that Microsoft isn't using the fact that Vista couldn't have been any worse to convince people to give Windows 7 a shot. |