Microsoft has just announced that business customers will be able to order Windows 7 on September 1 - well before the October 22 general release - and get a discount on the software somewhere in the range of 15 to 35 percent, depending on the size of the order. However, despite the company's best hopes for Windows 7 in the enterprise, many companies are likely to pass on the system entirely.

At least according to a recent study by ScriptLogic, which claims nearly 60 percent out of 1,100 surveyed IT administrators have no plans to upgrade at all, while 34 percent don't expect to move on to the platform until sometime in 2010 - which is actually a good prospect. Those holding back cite both economic and software concerns, with 42 percent citing "lack of time and resources" as the main reason for avoiding Windows 7 and almost as many at 39 percent fear critical software might not be compatible with the new operating system.

Microsoft has already said it will be including a virtualized copy of XP with Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate in a bid to placate the latter concern, but based on these findings only 5.4 percent say will deploy Windows 7 by year's end. It remains to be seen how accurate the study really is. However, despite a slew of positive reviews, it's entirely possible Microsoft will face a similar issue it had with Vista: businesses are happy enough with Windows XP that there is no urgency to upgrade.