Windows 8 has been the source of endless debate since its launch last year, attracting just as many fans as it has critics. It’s looking more and more likely that Microsoft will never regain its dominance of the consumer sector given the popularity of Apple and Android devices, but the real test will be in enterprise adoption, where Windows operating systems are generally viewed as the workhorse for productivity.

So how’s Windows 8 been faring in the enterprise so far? Apparently, not as well as Microsoft had hoped…

A new report from the consultancy firm Forrester Research suggests that Microsoft’s all-in-one operating system for traditional desktops and newer touchscreen devices has so far failed to satisfy the enterprise. What with support for Windows XP set to dry up next April, the vast majority of businesses are said to be focusing on a switch to Windows 7, never mind its successor. Indeed, Forrester Research says that many in the enterprise are keen to avoid Windows 8 altogether.

The report goes onto explain that at least 50 percent of company-issued PCs should be running Windows 8 by the time the next update comes around if the operating system wants to be considered “enterprise standard”. Windows 7 hardly broke a sweat in achieving that goal, but its successor is looking likely to fall well short of that mark.

Forrester Research came to that conclusion for a number of reasons. It says that the level of interest shown in Windows 8 from the enterprise is less than half what Windows 7 had achieved at the same point following its launch. It also points out that most IT departments do not consider Windows 8 to be an improvement over its predecessor. Moreover, Windows 8 doesn’t offer enough savings potential to warrant a deployment, and finally, IT generally views Android and iOS as the preferred operating systems for mobile devices, irrespective of those two platforms’ deficiencies specific to the enterprise.

On the bright side however, Forrester Research says that enterprise employees are showing an interest in Windows 8. According to its Forrsights Workforce Employee Survey for Q4 of 2012, which questioned 10,000 employees around the world, 38 percent of employees would like to use Windows 8 at work, compared to just 35 percent who preferred using Windows 7.

“IT won’t set Windows 8 as a standard, but that won’t stop workers from using it. IT organizations should therefore prepare for a strong initial push to support Windows 8, or at least permit employee-owned Windows 8 devices,” concludes Forrester in its report.

That workers are interested in Windows 8 appears to be the one bright spot for Microsoft at the moment. Regular consumers are another matter entirely, and things are not looking good. Speaking to Computerworld recently, Dell CFO Brian Gladden admitted as much when he said that. “Windows 8 has been, from our standpoint, not necessarily the catalyst to drive accelerated growth that we hoped it would be.”

Given the recent record slump in PC sales over the last quarter, Gladden’s comments are probably one of the biggest understatements of the year so far – no two ways about it, Microsoft has taken one hell of a beating from Apple and Google in the consumer market, and it will take a real effort to win back the share it’s lost.

It would appear that Microsoft’s best hopes lie within the enterprise sector, but it will need to overcome a number of obstacles if it wants to succeed in that arena. Forbes’ Adrian Kingsley-Hughes recently spoke to a number of IT decision makers about Windows 8 adoption, and found that the majority of them were unwilling to upgrade to Windows 8 as doing so would be “all or nothing”. The biggest concern is that Windows 8 cannot be combined effectively with older versions of Windows within work environments, and so many are reluctant to upgrade, says Kingsley-Hughes.

This isn’t to write Microsoft’s chances off completely, however it will almost certainly need to be patient. As SiliconANGLE’s contributing editor John Casaretto pointed out last week, Microsoft is only just beginning to hit second gear, and the newly updated Windows 8.1 promises some significant changes that might just change people’s mind.  Nevertheless, one of the biggest stumbling blocks to Windows 8 adoption is that many businesses have only recently upgraded to Windows 7, and so they see little incentive in upgrading again as doing so would almost certainly harm productivity while employees adapt to the new changes.