The company has elected to retire the older workstations that do not support Windows 7, Judkins said. "We still have a fair number of XP machines in our environment, but we are no longer imaging any machines with it," Judkins said.

However, before companies start making big investments in Windows 7, there needs to be a security net for them to feel safe spending money, analysts said. There is growing confidence that the economy won't be as bad next year as was previously feared, Advanced Micro Devices' CEO Dirk Meyer said on a conference call last week to discuss his company's financial results.

"The tone of the conversations we are having with CIOs ... has changed in the last three months. Clearly, wallets are starting to [open] up," Meyer said.

Gathering in New York for the Windows 7 launch this week, hardware vendors were also hoping for a sales boost with Windows 7.

The Windows 7 launch "is a great opportunity" to move to a new machine, said Tom Tobul, executive director of marketing for software and peripherals for Lenovo. Tobul was showing off Lenovo's new ThinkPad SL410 and SL510 laptops, which are timed for release with Windows 7 this week. The laptops are priced starting at $529 and aimed at small and medium-size businesses.