For the past several months as I have met with customers all over the world, I received a lot of positive input and feedback related to Windows 7. Customers such as BMW, Expedia, Pella Corporation, and Intel, tell me they are seeing great business value from Windows 7 Enterprise and the Windows Optimized Desktop, which is also reflected in high levels of customer satisfaction. We’re passionate about getting feedback from you to ensure we are engaging with you in the right way and having a positive impact on your business. Please, keep the feedback coming.

During many of these conversations, I get to hear encouraging details about your organization’s Windows 7 plans and the value delivered to both end users and IT professionals. I am equally encouraged by the results from a recent IDC study which shows that nearly all enterprise companies (89%) surveyed are moving forward with their Windows 7 plans within the next 24 months, if not sooner.  And 64% of them are already deploying Windows 7 or have plans to migrate in the next six months. As IDC observes - and my customer conversations reinforce - very strong adoption is underway for Windows 7.

For the majority of you already underway with your Windows 7 migrations, I want to share information and resources available to help you continue to plan and execute your deployments. The Springboard Series is a great destination for IT professionals providing in-depth technical resources, free tools, and expert guidance for any stage of your adoption lifecycle. Targeted programs from both Microsoft Services and Microsoft Partners are also available to help you implement a formalized pilot and then scale to a deployment production environment. Additionally, we offer whitepapers and tools to help as you move from Internet Explorer 6 to Internet Explorer 8 as part of your Windows 7 migrations. This specific guidance will help you more quickly determine the scope of the Internet Explorer application compatibility so you can allocate the right resources to deploy Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 to your organization. You can find these Internet Explorer related whitepapers on TechNet (IT professionals) and MSDN (for developers).

Many of you may have seen our recent announcement about the release of Windows Internet Explorer 9 Beta. It is great to see the community enthusiasm as represented by this recent blog post from an individual who attended the launch event in San Francisco. I am especially excited that Internet Explorer 9 Beta provides both great end user value in being fast and clean as well as significant IT value carried forward from Internet Explorer 8 in the manageability features such as enterprise-scale manageability through Group Policy and other security functionalities that our Internet Explorer 8 commercial customers are already enjoying with more end user experience improvements in this release.

Until the final code of Internet Explorer 9 is released to the web (RTW), we recommend businesses first move to Windows 7 Enterprise with Internet Explorer 8 so they can immediately benefit from the enhanced security, manageability, web standardization, and lifecycle support that Internet Explorer 8 brings to enterprise browsing, today. In addition, thanks to the high degree of application compatibility between the two browser versions, any investments today in deploying Internet Explorer 8 will put you on the best path to transitioning to Internet Explorer 9 in the future. Your Internet Explorer 8 migration investments will be preserved when you are ready to deploy Internet Explorer 9.

In conclusion, for organizations already considering Windows 7 or underway with their Windows 7 deployments, we have the following recommendations:

• If you are among the 89% of business customers who are in the process of testing, piloting or rolling out Windows 7: Continue your deployment of Windows 7, which includes Internet Explorer 8. Your investments in Internet Explorer 8 will put your business on the path to realizing the benefits of Internet Explorer 9 when it becomes commercially available.
• If you are among the 11% of customers without formalized Windows 7 migration plans: We strongly encourage you to upgrade to the benefits of Windows 7 Enterprise. Many customers are already realizing incredible value from Windows 7 compared to Windows XP with Service Pack 3, which will be supported through April, 2014. We also suggest you upgrade to Internet Explorer 8 to ensure the best level of security and manageability as possible.

Regardless of your organization’s stage of Windows 7 deployment plans, we still encourage you to explore the Internet Explorer 9 Beta and continue to take advantage of the Windows 7 resources on Springboard including new Internet Explorer 9 screencast, FAQ and whitepaper.

I trust this guidance will help you, our business customers, make informed decisions on your Windows deployment plans going forward.

- Rich