Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) across the UK will be encouraged to see Microsoft offering a ten per cent discount for UK small businesses on its new Vista product.

The discount also applies to home users looking to purchase additional licences for Vista.

Nick White, product manager on the Vista launch team, revealed in his online blog that the Windows Vista Additional Licence had extended to Europe.

He said that once small firms and home users had purchased the operating system they could install the same addition of Vista on additional computers.

Vista has outstripped its predecessor XP with sales of over 20 million licences in the first month of availability.

Bill Veghte, corporate vice president of the Windows Business Group at Microsoft, revealed it was encouraging to see a positive customer response.

He said: “While it’s very early in the product lifecycle, we are setting a foundation for Windows Vista to become the fastest-adopted version of Windows ever.”

Vista offers SMEs a host of useful features including instant search and increased IT security.

These are vital tools considering the British Chambers of Commerce’s research earlier this year showing 40 per cent of companies lose around £1,259 per year because they don’t have a basic firewall protecting data.

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