WinInsider

Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system is receiving raves in its pre-release testing. While much of the kernel that lies at the heart of the operating system is based on Vista code, several key advances have been made that get rid of Vista annoyances and greatly improve the user experience. Inside the kernel, one important change centers on how multithreaded applications are run. The threading advances provide benefits in energy reduction, scalability, and, in theory, performance.

There have been times when Microsoft launching a new operating system was a big deal. Yesterday was not one of them. And that's how Microsoft wanted it. I know people will disagree, citing the apparent effort Microsoft put into those dopey launch parties and other consumer promotions, but the difficulty of upgrading from XP to Windows 7 makes it a difficult sell. There was no real excitement, no real surprises at the Windows 7 launch yesterday in New York. And that's OK.

For consumers and many small businesses, Windows 7 is the operating system that will come on their next PC. Will the new OS convince customers to upgrade to new hardware for the holidays? Will it uncork pent-up demand?

And so it begins: On Tuesday, online retailing giant Amazon.com began shipping its Windows 7 preorders to customers around the globe for delivery on Thursday. But Amazon also had some good news to share with the world: Windows 7 is already a bestseller, and its preorders are stronger than the preorders for both Windows Vista and Windows XP... combined.

Amazon UK representatives were even more effusive than their US counterparts. "The launch of Windows 7 has superseded everyone's expectations, storming ahead of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as the biggest-grossing preorder product of all time at Amazon.co.uk, and demand is still going strong," said Brian McBride, a managing director at Amazon UK. "Over the past three months, only Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol has sold more copies than Windows 7, which is an incredible achievement for a software product."

Apple is in a tough spot right now because its own OS, Snow Leopard, is turning into an unprecedented train wreck of incompatibilities, massive data loss, and customer disappointment. Meanwhile, the release of Windows 7 is giving millions of people around the world a reason to smile about the PC again. It's like the two companies' roles have suddenly reversed. So how does Apple respond to the release of Windows 7? Does the company try and actually sell its own products now instead of just mocking the competition, as it's done for over three years in the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ads? LOL. Apparently, you don't know Apple. They're at it again with new ads blasting Microsoft and Windows 7. But you know what? This time around, I think people are going to see these ads for the desperate FUD that they are. Heads up, Apple. Your shtick is getting old. And it doesn't reflect what's really happening, sorry.

Windows 7, it's here! Well, it's actually been here since PDC 2008 in some form or fashion, but Windows 7 has reached its official launch day. You've heard about the new taskbar, you've heard it's more stable and faster than Windows V(ista) (I don't want to say the V word anymore.) Windows 7 starts up, shuts down and sleeps faster, it doesn't have all the junk loaded in it Windows V had, and Microsoft's finally tamed UAC enough that it stays out of the way.

But now that Windows 7 has officially launched and everyone can have the real thing, what are the coolest and most beneficial things about it. What should you try first as you take Windows 7 out for a spin? Here are some of the more useful, and not as well known, enhancements in Windows 7 I think you'll enjoy.

A day after Microsoft delivered Windows 7, the company reported results for its first quarter of fiscal 2010 this morning that topped analysts' expectations, though revenues were down significantly from the same period last year.

For the quarter ended Sept. 30, Microsoft posted $3.57 billion in net income -- a drop of 18 percent from a year ago -- with earnings per share totaling $0.40.

That's well above Wall Street expectations: Thomson Financial consensus had analysts projecting Microsoft to deliver EPS of $0.32 for the quarter -- down slightly from $0.34 the company delivered in the previous quarter, and a considerable drop from same time last year when Microsoft brought in $0.48 EPS.

Microsoft Windows 7, being introduced today in New York, appears to be the operating system that businesses have been waiting for. Some 76 percent of those surveyed plan to deploy the new OS, with 30 percent deploying before mid-2010.

The study, conducted by Information Technology Intelligence and Sunbelt Software, suggests an adoption rate not matched since the introduction of Windows 2000, the acceptance of which was driven by Y2K fears..

The survey results, released this week, also found that 78 percent of those who tested a beta copy of Windows 7 had a good or excellent experience with it. This strongly suggests that Microsoft has finally found the "sweet spot" that Windows Vista so widely missed.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took the stage in New York Thursday, playing the role of chief salesman in a day of worldwide launch events, executive speechmaking and sales promotions meant to persuade consumers and businesses to migrate to Windows 7.

With characteristic high energy and in his booming voice, Ballmer evoked the Windows 7 marketing mantra of "simplicity" to a crowd of about 250 journalists and analysts in a Soho loft space.

"At the end of the day, it's trying to make the everyday usage of the PC better in the way you want it to ... simpler, faster, more responsive, less busy."

Microsoft has reached collaboration agreements with Twitter and Facebook to get their members' public status updates and messages indexed and presented in useful ways on the Bing search engine.

Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of Microsoft's Online Audience Business, made the announcement on stage at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.

The partnership with Twitter has it working with Microsoft to optimize how Bing crawls and indexes "tweets." Microsoft in turn will apply search algorithms to the Twitter messages, so that Bing users will not only be able to see a real-time feed of "tweets" but also rank them by how relevant they are to their query, Mehdi said.

Let the countdown begin. We are at less than T-minus 24 hours to the general availability of Windows 7. Whether you are a die-hard Windows XP user, or a Windows Vista user, or even a user of a non-Windows operating system, there is reason to look at Windows 7 and give serious consideration to embracing the new operating system.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will be headlining the red-carpet Windows 7 launch event in New York on Thursday. Perhaps Microsoft is a little gun-shy after the Vista backlash, but the Windows 7 launch is significantly more modest than the nightclub gala spectacle Microsoft hosted to introduce Windows Vista.