Win7 Win: Microsoft Recovers From Vista Stumble

A year after it first shipped, Windows 7 continues to be the commercial success that Windows Vista never was. Microsoft boasted today that it’s sold (or rather sold and pre-installed) more than 240 million Windows 7 licenses to date, making it the fastest-selling OS ever.

As of last month, Windows 7 was running on 93 percent of new consumer PCs. More interestingly, it’s being sold by 100 percent of Microsoft’s OEM partners–quite a bit more than the 70 percent that picked up Windows Vista during a similar time period. Sort of a startling admission, isn’t it? Thirty percent of the company’s OEM partners turned up their noses at Vista.

In any event, analysts have been predicting that Microsoft will sell 300 million or so Windows 7 licenses by the end of this calendar year. Certainly looks possible.