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The Windows operating system upgrade cycle is in full swing. Microsoft has sold 150 million copies of Windows 7 since it launched last October. That comes to 7 copies every second….

Windows 7 is the fastest selling operating system in history,” said Brandon LeBlanc, Microsoft’s in-house Windows blogger, in a post Wednesday. All told, Microsoft has sold more than 150 million Windows 7 licenses since the product debuted last October.

LeBlanc added that 75% of enterprises are either actively deploying or evaluating Windows 7. “That’s amazing,” said LeBlanc.

Microsoft announced this week that Windows 7 sells 7 new licenses every 7 seconds and has sold a total of 150 million licenses of Windows 7 to date. Microsoft has called Windows 7 the fastest selling operating in history. The announcement doesn’t differentiate between retail and business licenses, but it is still an impressive number for an operating system that launched in November of 2009.

One reason for the large initial sales of Windows 7 is that many businesses, and some consumers, skipped right past Windows Vista. Vista in general received a poor reception from users who found it to be, in some cases unsuitable for use. With Windows 7 on the other hand, companies are already rolling out new installations. A report from  a presentation at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch U.S. Technology Conference noted that 75% of the companies looking at actively deploying new technology are considering Windows 7. Up until now many companies had stuck with Windows XP.

On the campus where I work, Windows 7 has begun a rollout to users who have been on Windows XP for years. The reception so far is amazing with many users showing excitement for the new features in Windows 7 like “Snap” and a reimagined taskbar. For those with more than one monitor, there is also much to be happy about. These are note geeks like myself but average users who are just happy to have a PC that works how they want it to.

Microsoft on Wednesday announced that it has sold over 150 million Windows 7 licenses, and that the next generation of its Windows Live Essentials apps are now available as public betas.

A lot of this volume likely comes from businesses finally deciding to upgrade from Windows XP, after skipping the problem-riddled Vista.

Still, Microsoft has its work cut out if it’s to erase IT managers’ memories of Windows Vista. Few enterprises adopted Vista due to concerns about hardware requirements, application compatibility, and intrusive security measures that required user authorization for routine tasks like moving a file from one folder to another.

Microsoft to an extent addressed compatibility issues by adding a feature called XP Mode to Windows 7. XP Mode lets users run apps in a virtualized XP environment if they’re not compatible with Windows 7, which is built on the same foundation as Vista and is thus incompatible with apps that also wouldn’t run on Vista.

As part of the announcement, Microsoft also shared that they are releasing new beta versions (pre-releases) of the Microsoft Live apps. These apps are designed for sharing, photos, movies and communication. The suite of apps includes new Messenger, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker and Sync. Personally I look forward to trying out Windows Live Movie Maker which is usually enough for short home use video editing. I’m hoping the new version adds back some of the functionality the tool had when it was part of Windows XP.

Resources :informationweek.com,notebooks.com