About half of all U.S. business personal computers fail to meet the minimum hardware requirements to support Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system, according to a new information technology white paper by Softchoice Corp.

Furthermore, about 94 percent lack the horsepower needed for Vista Premium.

That could be a troubling scenario for American businesses. Consider that when Microsoft launched Windows XP in 2002, about 71 percent of American business PCs met its system requirements.

The minimum CPU requirements for Vista, which includes Microsoft Office 2007, are 243 percent higher than those of Windows XP, yet the average business PC's CPU has increased by just 215 percent during the same time frame. A Softchoice analyst calls this "a significant barrier to adoption."

Microsoft, however, estimates that 20 percent of PCs will run Vista within the first year of its release, double the adoption rate of XP.

So, businesses will need to weigh the costs of the Vista upgrades with the costs of not investing in the upgrades, which may include lower productivity and potential competitive disadvantages. The next step will be to devise a timetable for conversion to the new system.

However, early adopters beware. It's becoming crystal clear that the wise are not just jumping willy-nilly into the Vista upgrade. Computer programmers already are identifying significant security flaws with Vista and Microsoft's new Internet Explorer 7 browser.

The breaches pose a substantial consumer confidence problem for Microsoft, which has been telling customers to upgrade from Windows XP to Vista, because Vista "sets a new standard for security."

Maybe. Maybe not. The full rollout of Vista is expected in January.

The wise will wait to let the Vista bugs be exterminated before upgrading to the new system. To gain more insight about what businesses should do as Vista is launched, visit the link at the bottom of this article.

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