With Microsoft's Vista operating system scheduled to be formally shipped to IT organizations this month, a poll of 761 IT decision makers found that 20% expect to adopt the OS within a year and a total of 86% currently planning to adopt Vista eventually.

The poll found that just 26% have an actual Vista implementation plan in place, according to the results announced Monday by CDW Corp.

In spite of the warm and fuzzy feelings most IT managers have for Vista, 51% of the poll respondents expect at least one-half of their hardware systems will require an upgrade to accommodate the new operating system. The chief concern -- first version bugs -- was cited by 52%.

CDW, which provides a wide range of hardware and software systems to IT organizations, said state and local government IT managers who responded in the poll revealed that the need for hardware upgrades is particularly acute in their organizations; one-quarter of them said between 91% and 100% of their existing hardware will need upgrading or replacing for Vista.

"For most organizations, the question of Windows Vista adoption is not if, but when," said Harry J. Harczak, CDW's executive VP, in a statement. "Regardless of the time horizon for adoption, every organization needs to have a Windows Vista strategy in place to understand and address the infrastructure, enterprise application and personnel requirements associated with the market's shift to this new operating system."

CDW added that just 26% of the polled IT managers have at least a rough plan to implement Vista.

Generally, the respondents were enthusiastic about Vista, with 75% hailing improved security as one of pluses of the operating system and 63% citing improved performance as another Vista plus.

CDW said 21% of those surveyed currently have a pre-release version of Vista with 70% of those having a "somewhat favorable" opinion about the operating system. Fourteen percent viewed Vista as "very favorable" but 9% found it "somewhat unfavorable or very unfavorable."

CDW said a number of its customers are already using its CDW specialists to plan for Vista.