The interesting conclusion comes after BeyondTrust analysed all of Microsoft's security bulletins issued in 2010 and found that the vast majority of vulnerabilities could have been diminished by configuring end users as standard users
Delving into the report reveals that the removal of administrator rights from Windows users would have been a mitigating factor in 75% of critical Windows 7 vulnerabilities.
According to BeyondTrust, the results show that, as companies migrate to Windows 7 they will need to implement a desktop privileged identity management system to reduce the risks from unpatched Microsoft vulnerabilities without inhibiting their users' ability to operative effectively.
Peter Beauregard, the company's director of programme management, said that Microsoft identified 256 vulnerabilities in 2010.
The software giant, he observed, does a good job identifying and patching those vulnerabilities, but the pure number demonstrates the volume of vulnerabilities in some of the most common business software in the enterprise.
"Patching alone doesn't protect the enterprise, because so many vulnerabilities are undiscovered and others could take weeks to patch", he said.
Against this backdrop, Beauregard concludes that removing administrative privileges from users is the only way to eliminate the vast majority of risk that comes from these vulnerabilities.