New data collected from the exo.performance.network suggests that over a third of PCs that ship with Microsoft Windows Vista are being downgraded to Windows XP—a percentage that, if generalizable to the wider world of Windows users—paints a far grimmer picture of Vista adoption than a large Redmond-based software company would have the world believe.
The data come from a tool called Windows Sentinel published by Devil Mountain Software, which analyzes data in the community-based exo.performance.network dataset of more than 3,000 PCs worldwide. Devil Mountain Software is run by InfoWorld contributing editor Randall Kennedy. Entering a PC in to the exo.performance.network is voluntary—so there’s no way to say whether the PCs in the sample set are in any way representative of the Windows-using world as a whole—but the data decidedly re-enforce the sense that Vista isn’t enjoying an enthusiastic embrace.
Analysis of the exo.performance.network data suggests that up to 35 percent of PCs that would have shipped with Windows Vista—based on their manufacturer and system model name—are in fact running Windows XP. Many of these installations are likely supported through a downgrade option that enables users to buy a license to Vista and install XP instead: If they later choose to run Vista, they can "re-upgrade" to Vista at no additional cost. Some PC vendors are selling systems with Windows XP pre-installed using this option, particularly to selected enterprise customers and even gamers who aren’t willing to jump in the Vista bandwagon.
"Enthusiasts and even some enterprise shops do their own ‘clean’ installations as part of any new PC purchase," Kennedy wrote in an Infoworld blog. "And the nature of a Windows-only monitoring service, like Windows Sentinel, means that we cannot factor Linux users or even the Hackintosh crowd into our numbers. However, 35 percent is still a huge percentage, and way out of proportion for even the dramatically unpopular Windows Vista."
Of course, the flip side of the coin is that 65 percent of the users in the self-selecting exo.performance.network data set who buy Vista-equipped PCs are sticking with Vista.
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