One company that has already migrated to Windows Vista, and plans to upgrade to Windows 7 as well, is computer reseller Heartland Technology Solutions in Harlan, Iowa. Heartland is a Microsoft partner that participated in the Vista beta-testing program.

Arlin Sorensen, CEO and president of Heartland, said that Vista increased worker productivity, particularly because of its the improved desktop search functionality.

Heartland serviced about 1,900 individual small-business customers last year, each with its own set of unique IT needs, he said. However, one of the most common problems customers needed help with was finding documents or files they couldn't locate.

"This is where the ability to search more quickly and efficiently for files immensely improved productivity," Sorensen said.

"The whole Vista experience has helped in simple but very productive ways," he said. "There's a significant amount of time people waste looking for documents."