Revealed: Your favourite Windows operating system

A multitude of Microsoft operating systems have been launched into the world since the first versions of Windows appeared back in the early 1980s.

But after all these years of development, which operating system software do silicon.com readers rate as their favourite? Is it the latest OS or a golden oldie that has won a place in their technological hearts?

Wonder no longer - in a poll of more than 350 silicon.com readers who were asked to decide which was their favourite Microsoft desktop operating system, Windows XP came out the clear winner, grabbing more than half (52 per cent) of the total votes.

Currently, eight out of 10 new PCs run Windows XP, nearly eight years after the operating system was first released, according to analyst Forrester. That figure is expected to drop by more than half by next year as businesses leapfrog Windows Vista for Windows 7.

However, CIOs have told silicon.com that they don't intend to upgrade to Windows 7 in 2010, and are instead likely to hold out until the year after.

Windows 7, which went on sale to the general public only two weeks ago, came second in the silicon.com reader poll, grabbing nearly a quarter of the votes (21 per cent).

Windows Vista, the operating system between XP and Windows 7, unsurprising scored poorly with a mere five per cent of readers surveyed choosing it as their favourite desktop OS.

Of the rest, Windows 2000 (eight per cent) slightly outscored Windows 98 (five per cent), while NT was the least favoured by the silicon.com readers who answered the poll, picking up a mere two per cent of the votes. Windows 1.0 and Windows 95 scored three per cent each.