Windows 7 234% better than Vista at launch

WIndows 7 - owning Vista left, right and centre
WIndows 7 - owning Vista left, right and centre

In its first few days of sales, Windows 7 has obliterated the number managed by the previous version of the OS, Vista.

Admittedly it's only sales in the US, but in the first few days of being made available to the public Windows 7 has sold 234 per cent more copies than Vista managed in the similar period.

According to NPD, the tracking service for such things, a number of factors contributed to the high volume of OS sales, but pointed that it bodes well for the future of the new release.

Plus de power

There are a number of reasons why Windows 7 has been a bigger hit with consumers than Vista, and not only because many were sorely disappointed with the earlier OS and couldn't wait to upgrade.

PC development cycles are likely to have played a huge part, with user willing to buy a new PC (or upgrade the OS) in order to take advantage of the leap in hardware power.

It's also a much more netbook friendly option, giving it a wider reach for new customers, although this is unlikely to have affected the early sales of software units as it's not available on USB stick yet.

But any way you look at it, Microsoft appears to have gone some way towards banishing the demons of a poor public perception of Vista.

Via Windows Team Blog

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grew with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.

Latest in Windows
Microsoft Store logo on a blurred background
There's finally a fix for an annoying Microsoft Store bug that's older than Windows 11
Portrait of African-American teenage boy studying at home or in college dorm and using laptop, copy space
Windows 11’s Notepad gets AI-powered ‘Rewrite’ feature, but not everyone’s going to be happy about it
Copilot on a laptop
Microsoft quietly updates Copilot to cut down on unauthorized Windows activations
Windows fail
It looks like Microsoft might have broken Windows 11 24H2 again as performance plummets with Intel's latest CPUs
Windows 11 update with Task Manager menu
Microsoft is fixing Windows 11 Task Manager’s quirky reporting of CPU usage, and a much-wanted change for the lock screen is coming, too
Young woman using laptop, looking annoyed
Microsoft’s latest bit of nagging in Windows 11 might come from a good place, but it’s seriously annoying some people
Latest in News
An Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 resting on an RTX 5090 on a gray crafting mat.
Corsair tells us only one of its prebuilt PCs with an RTX 5000 GPU has suffered from chip-level fault, suggesting it’s as rare as Nvidia claimed
Fujfilm GFX 50R
First Fujifilm GFX100RF images leaked in build-up to expected reveal – here’s what they tell us about the unique premium compact camera
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 in blue
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 could have a Motorola Razr-style full-sized cover screen – and I think it’s about time
Spotify logo on a mobile device
Had Spotify problems recently? It's clamped down on Premium APK 'modded' apps – here's what's happening
An AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT made by Sapphire on a table with its retail packaging
Last-minute AMD RX 9070 XT stock rumors are making me hopeful for a much better launch than Nvidia’s RTX 5000 GPUs – with just one snag
eSIM
Global eSIM shipment volume surpasses half a billion units as demand keeps on growing