The migration to Windows Vista is not going to happen for at least a year, according to users of Outpost Firewall Pro surveyed twice in the past six months by Russian security company Agnitum.

Agnitum’s survey results track independent polls conducted by Harris Interactive, Computerwoche and PC Welt, among others, concluding that users are taking a “wait and see approach” to the new operating system.

“Users are not knocking down doors to buy Vista,” said Mikhail Penkovsky, global vice president for Marketing and Sales at Agnitum. “Of course they’ll be upgrading when it’s inevitable, but not today. Vista is the hot story of the moment. It’s new. There’s plenty of press coverage - and Microsoft does report millions of copies sold. But it is clear that our customers, and many other personal computer users, are deliberately waiting for the inevitable patches, fixes, service packs — and better security.”

Agnitum is developing a Vista-compatible version of Outpost, an award-winning personal firewall that protects more than a million users of Windows worldwide.

“We see no need to rush to market with something as important as a personal firewall for the new OS,” said Penkovsky. “Our customers are telling us they will need a Windows XP firewall for at least the next 12 months — and when they do move to Vista, they want a solid, fully-developed firewall to protect them. That’s the most significant message for us in these survey results.”

Agnitum surveyed users in September 2006, in English and German, as Microsoft began to ship Vista to business users. The September surveys generated results from about 600 users. Six months later, in March 2007, after sales of Vista to consumers began, Agnitum surveyed users in English and French - and the English response rate tripled.

“It’s not an exhaustive, scientific poll, but it is an accurate picture of what our users are doing and plan to do over the next 12 months or so. The significant increase in the number of users responding to the second survey is critically important to us in terms of prioritizing our own development activities,” said Penkovsky.