More than a third of all new Windows PCs recently bought by large businesses have deliberately been setup to run an operating system other than Windows Vista, InfoWorld says in a new study of a user network. Although Microsoft officially cut off most Windows XP sales on June 30th, the publication notes that 35 percent of all the systems brought online at enterprises since then either take advantage of a downgrade loophole that allows vendors to preinstall XP on normally Vista-based systems or else have installed another operating system of their own, whether it involves XP or an alternative such as Windows Server 2003 or 2008.

Other operating systems such as Linux are also a possibility, though the tool used to monitor the results only recognizes Windows and so doesn't factor in alternatives that may be in use with some computers.

No reason is given for the high rate of resistance, though businesses have been widely reported as hesitating to implement the upgrade due to backwards compatibility problems with their existing software. The extra performance required to run Vista smoothly has also been cited as a factor.

The news dampens hopes for Microsoft of stronger Vista sales in the short term, which were expected to increase now that most mainstream PCs are required to run the newer platform. The XP downgrade option is ultimately set to phase out in coming months and will accordingly require that all standard Windows systems use Vista.

Source: electronista