Computerworld — Weeks after making its case for why enterprises should dump Windows XP for Windows Vista, Microsoft Corp. talked up the merits of its upcoming operating system, Windows 7, for large businesses.

Besides new security and management features, such as BitLocker To Go and Applocker, Windows 7 has benefited from extensive testing with enterprise customers, according to Gavriella Schuster, a senior director for Windows client product management, in an interview.

Several-dozen companies participated in Microsoft's Technology Adoption Program (TAP) for Windows 7's betas, she said, while 50 companies are deploying Windows 7 as part of a "First Wave" program.

Microsoft also performed 1 million hours of automated performance testing on Windows 7, she said.

The goal, Schuster said, is to prevent the application and device driver compatibility problems that hit Vista.

For instance, Microsoft discovered through testing that one of the biggest causes of broken applications in Vista was installation failures. In such cases, the application, during the installation process, would check what version of Windows was running, and if it wasn't XP, the installation would immediately fail, she said. That was true even if the application was likely to have worked in Vista, anyway.

As a result, Microsoft is pushing independent software vendors to change that installer code to allow apps to be installed in Windows 7 even if they weren't explicitly written for it.

But isn't it more prudent for apps that haven't been explicitly rewritten and certified for Windows 7 to be prevented from installing, in case the software misbehaves down the road? Not at all, Schuster said.

"We don't want to randomly break apps simply because of a versioning issue," she said.

On drivers, Microsoft has now certified 2.8 million unique devices as plug-and-play for Windows 7, she said. Altogether, out of 10 million devices and peripherals, 75% already have drivers carried by Windows 7, another 20% are available now through Windows Update, with the remaining 5% still being worked on by Microsoft.

New features available to Windows 7 Enterprise customers include BitLocker to Go, which protects applications stored on portable media such as USB flash drives, and AppLocker, which, through Group Policy, lets administrators decide what apps can be installed on employees' PCs.

Schuster acknowledged that there are plenty of third-party applications that replicate those features, and at lower upfront cost.

On the other hand, "it depends on how the CIO wants to drive costs out of his or her organization. Those third-party apps mean more vendors to work with and more hassle," she said. With Windows, companies will have "a single OS that can do the work of seven or eight vendors and require fewer people and fewer resources when managed through Microsoft System Center," she added.

In other words, it enables companies to lay off IT staffers to cut costs? "Unfortunately, that's where a lot of IT managers are at," Schuster said, although she noted that many companies are simply cutting through attrition.