Microsoft has sold more than 100 million Windows 7 licenses since putting the software on the market six months ago, making it "by far the fastest-selling operating system in history," the company said upon releasing its third-quarter financial results. High demand for the latest operating system drove up Microsoft's quarterly revenue, which saw a 28 percent increase over the third quarter last year.

More than 10 percent of the world's PCs are running Windows 7 already, according to a post by Brandon LeBlanc on a Microsoft blog.  For the most part, reviews for the OS have been good, and Microsoft is predicting a sizeable refresh cycle just ahead. However, the OS hasn't come without its share of upgrade headaches. 

For a sampling of difficulties some enterprises have experienced during the transition, take a look at Nicholas Kolakowski's latest post on the eWeek Microsoft Watch blog. Kolakowski notes that for most companies, the migration experience overall has been relatively smooth. But for those who have had problems, he shares their experiences in their own words. While some complain of a lack of drivers and other compatibility issues, one provided the big-picture perspective: "Have we forgotten the nightmare of driver compatibility with Vista already? This Windows 7 is a huge relief from the excessive burden of dealing with Vista and its quirks..."

A recent survey of InformationWeek's readers also revealed a generally positive impression of Windows 7, which is a noticeable change in opinion over a similar query that the magazine conducted last summer, reports Randy George. InformationWeek used the detailed responses from a February survey to compile a report on how to ease the transition to Windows 7. The report suggests that one way to convince business executives of the need to upgrade is to point out the costs of not upgrading: Over the next year and a half, hardware support for XP will fall, and critical applications, such as antivirus programs, will likely offer reduced support for XP as well.   

For more:
- see the Microsoft 3Q results press release
- check out Brandon LeBlanc's Microsoft blog post
- here's Nicholas Kolakowski's post at eWeek
- see Randy George's article at InformationWeek

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