By Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Microsoft Federal 

It’s an exciting week here at Microsoft as Windows 7 will be officially available tomorrow!  It’s an operating system that was truly designed by our customers, with new features developed based on the feedback we’ve received over the past few years: 

  • In Vista we introduced User Account Control (UAC) to help increase security and lower total cost of ownership, and in Win 7 we’ve enhanced it to be less intrusive without sacrificing security.  The new version has greatly lowered the number of the much-talked about alerts users receive, and has made the overall security control process more streamlined. 
  • For mobile workers and folks working remotely, we’ve introduced Direct Access, which allows users to securely access corporate or agency networks without having to go through a complicated credentialing process. 
  • BitLocker To Go is a feature that allows hardware like USB drives to be protected with a passphrase, securing sensitive data regardless of where it’s located.   

(For a more comprehensive list of features and enhancements visit our resources page for enterprise customers.)

We’re encouraged by the response Win 7 has received so far, but I wanted to take a minute to clarify some information for government customers looking to upgrade. 

First the price.  There have been a lot of numbers thrown around in the media regarding the cost of upgrading for agencies, but the truth is that after volume pricing and discounts our federal customers will be able to move to Win 7 Enterprise for under $100 per user.  While still a significant investment, it’s one that will pay off for agencies in terms of performance, security, and compatibility. 

Second, migration time.  Whether you’re upgrading from Vista or XP, the average install time takes between 30 – 40 minutes, with an additional 30 – 45 minutes for data migration.  Reports citing 20 hours of install time are referring to power users transitioning massive amounts (over 600 GBs) of data.  Typical users will have no problem migrating in under an hour, especially if they use our free Windows Easy Transfer tool.  Customers upgrading from XP will require a clean install, but Windows Easy Transfer allows users to file their existing data and settings directly onto their hard drive, without requiring backup or restore.  Additionally, Win 7 includes a “legacy mode” -- a virtualized environment that runs applications from previous operating systems.  So in the rare event that an XP user is unable to run a program in Win 7, it will seamlessly run it in “XP mode.”

Many government customers have already participated in our Technical Access Program (TAP) and have provided invaluable feedback on Windows 7, and customers from the University of New Mexico to the State of Illinois to the City of Miami are investing in Win 7.  We want to continue to receive feedback as government needs evolve, so check out our Win 7 government page to let us know your thoughts, chat with a specialist, get information on discounts or view a demo.