• Is there a way to play games that require a CD-ROM but without the CD?
• Unlike with Vista, it’s been pretty quiet since the Windows 7 launch. Does that mean it’s a winner?
• Can anyone suggest a good VPN or proxy solution that is either cheap or free?
• How can I hide the new tab button Firefox 3.5.7?
• I’m currently very happy with my 720p HDTV, so how many years until I need to get a 1080p set?
• Does anyone have a good method for troubleshooting in-wall Ethernet cables?

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Windows 7 is doing well, which gives the number crunching crowd an opportunity to compare it with Mac OS X – if only for a moment. According to Internet metrics company Net Applications, Windows 7 last weekend powered (on average) 5.07% of PCs, while in that week Mac OS X (in all its iterations) powered around 5% of computers worldwide.

Since Windows’ overall market share is 92.64%, it’s obvious that this was bound to happen, and that Windows 7 will eventually go far beyond the 5% marker (even if the folks at Net Applications admit that the 5% figure is only a peak, and that they’re missing a couple of numbers). The real news here is that Windows 7 is outselling Vista in its first month of sales, growing at a 3.9% monthly average. Its growth comes mostly at the expense of Windows XP, but, to a much lesser extent, also Mac OS X, as Apple’s overall market share was 5.27% in October.

All signs are showing that Microsoft has a clear winner in its hands: market share is growing, Steve Ballmer is frolicking, and users are happy. It also shows how resilient the desktop OS market is: even if it takes you 6 years to create a crappy OS (Vista), the competition won’t run over you or even capture a significant market share (which happened in the web browser race, where Firefox capitalized on Microsoft’s IE-induced slumber).

Tags: mac os x, operating system, Windows 7

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Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer has never been too modest about Microsoft’s sales numbers; in fact, throughout the Vista era he insisted that the news OS is doing great, selling better than any other Microsoft OS in history.

Now, he claims that Windows 7 is selling even better, which we’re inclined to believe based on the fantastic preorder figures. Speaking at Microsoft’s shareholder meeting, Ballmer said Microsoft has “already sold twice as many units as any OS in a comparable time frame.”

He then delivers on the grandeur that is expected from him, saying “Windows 7 is simply the best PC operating system that we or anyone else has ever built.” OK, Steve, it’s good, but it definitely isn’t revolutionary enough to be called “the best ever”.

Vista was selling well, compared to its predecessor, simply because there were more computers around than there were when Windows XP was new. When you’ve got hardware vendors selling laptops and desktops with your new OS, you simply can’t do all that bad. But with Windows 7, Microsoft really seems to have a winner: the reviews were great, the market share is rising, users love it, and everyone will probably soon forget about Vista, just as they’ve forgotten about Windows ME.

Tags: Steve Ballmer, Windows 7

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Windows 7 software unit sales in the U.S. were 234 percent higher than Vista’s first few days of sales. A combination of early discounts on pre-sales and a lack of promotional activity for the Ultimate version resulted in dollar sales that were 82 percent higher than Vista.

"Microsoft’s program of early low-cost pre-sales, high visibility marketing, and aggressive deals helped make the Windows 7 software launch successful," said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD.

"In a slow environment for packaged software Windows 7 brought a large number of customers into the software aisles."

While boxed software sales were up compared to the Vista launch, PC hardware sales ran into more of a challenge. PC sales growth was higher than any week during the high volume back-to-school third quarter, but wasn’t as strong as growth during the Vista launch.

PC sales growth during the Vista launch was stronger, increasing 68 percent over the prior year’s sales and 170 percent over the week preceding the launch. Windows PC sales were down 6 percent compared to PC sales during the Vista launch week.

"A combination of factors impacted Windows 7 PC sales at the outset, but the trajectory of overall PC sales is very strong leading into the holiday season," said Baker. 

"Vista had a slight advantage at launch, as January traditionally has a bigger sales footprint than October.  The other hurdle Windows 7 faced was sales of PCs with older operating systems (XP and Vista) were high, making up 20 percent of sales during the Windows 7 launch, compared to just 6 percent of older operating sales during Vista’s launch week."

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> What People Are Saying About Microsoft Windows 7

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>Microsoft Wants You To Bing Up Your Windows 7

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The NPD Group has some figures now from the Windows 7 launch, and are reporting that the new Microsoft operating system is selling well — or at least, much better than Vista did at its launch. In the first few days of sales, Windows 7 units in the U.S. moved 234 percent faster than Vista did in its equivalent launch window.

Of course, in many ways the bar wasn’t set too high. Still, Microsoft must be feeling relieved at the good sales clip for what is still, after all, its core business.

Unfortunately, thanks to pre-sales discounts and general lack of promotional effort behind the Ultimate version, revenue growth wasn’t quite as impressive. Looking strictly at dollar sales, Windows 7 is up 82% over than the equivalent time period for Vista.

The NPD reported the top-selling versions of the software and their average prices for the week ending October 24 as follows:

1. Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade / $76
2. Windows 7 Pro Upgrade / $147
3. Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack 3 User Upgrade / $149

In a tough economic time for packaged software, Windows 7 appears to be faring fairly well. The PC hardware sales picture wasn’t nearly as rosy, however. Although total PC sales were up 49 percent in year-over-year sales and a full 95 percent over the previous week, the overall growth rate was not as high as during the Vista launch window, which saw a 68% jump in year-over-year and 170% gain over the week prior to Vista’s launch. Vista had a slight advantage with its January release however, which typically shows a larger PC sales footprint than the month of October.

Mashable readers seem to agree that Windows 7 has been a success, as it bested Apple’s OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard in our recent Web Faceoff. Did you pick up a copy of Windows 7 during the launch week? If so, which version did you buy? What are your impressions?

Tags: microsoft, operating systems, sales, software, Vista, Windows 7

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First things first here: I’m a Mac guy. But I must say: Windows 7 has made quite a lot improvements compared to it’s predecessor (Vista). The first time I booted the OS and saw flying orbs create the Windows logo, I was impressed.

I was even more impressed by the amazing user interface improvements made by Microsoft. For those that aren’t familiar with these, here’s a complete list with sweet UI improvements on Windows 7. Below is the startup screen created by the flying orbs.

A small little diclaimer here: I’ve fully skipped the "Windows Vista Era", since I moved to Mac OSX right after Windows XP. There might be some things in this list that were already implemented in Vista, but I wasn’t aware of those. Also, this list only shows the graphical improvements – not the technical.

That being said, let’s check out the slick UI improvements Microsoft brought to their new OS. It could be pretty inspirational for you too!

Read more…

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Microsoft has dominated the social buzz this week. They made waves when they inked a search deal with Twitter, but the story that has dominated the news this week has to be the highly anticipated launch of Windows 7.

The newest version of Microsoft’s operating version promised to deliver speed, security, and usability upgrades that Windows Vista lacked. But did Microsoft succeed in erasing Vista’s dark shadow? Mashable Founder Pete Cashmore was on CNN Live to discuss that very issue.

On the “Blogger’s Bunch” segment, Pete and others chatted about not only the impact of Windows 7, but debated whether the operating system wars are dead due to the rise of web apps and the browser. In addition, they analyzed recent chatter about Hulu potentially charging for shows in 2010.

You can watch the full debate on Windows 7 and Hulu in the CNN video below:

Embedded video from CNN Video

Tags: cnn, microsoft, pete cashmore, Windows 7

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Apple iMac

Windows 7 debuted yesterday and it’s getting positive reviews. Even though I’m a Mac user, I hope it does well because I want a PC in the mix for testing and what not. With the debut means that some new ads also popped up to help get the word out.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I appreciate the ads but personally I view the ads as contradicting. Previously with Vista, even though the world claimed it had problems they still advertised it as this great product. I’m talking advertising, not business decisions which obviously agreed with the public. In the new ad they clearly admit and agree that Windows Vista was really a terrible OS and practically highlight all of its flaws. They failed on a massive scale. They failed to deliver then.

This is exactly what Apple is capitalizing on with their new ad which strategically debuted for Windows 7 release. Why should we believe Microsoft now? Did Vista totally ruin the image of Microsoft’s operating systems? I don’t think so. Windows ME was a massive failure and they bounced back with Windows XP. It seems to be their style.

I think it’s time Apple drop their condescending ad campaign though, we’ve had enough, at least I have. However, as long it works I don’t see that happening.

On the flip side, what’s positive about Windows 7 ad spot is that it tells me that they’ve listened intently and have fixed the problems with their OS. Now what’s left is time. Only time will tell if they got it right. Like I said, I hope they did because I want a PC in the mix again. What’s your thought?

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It’s been an eventful day: among all the breaking news about Microsoft signing a search deal with Facebook and Twitter, Google doing the same with Twitter and later announcing social search, one can easily forget that today is the day that Vista gets replaced by something better: Windows 7.

As we wrote earlier, the interest for the new OS from Microsoft has been huge, making Windows 7 the biggest pre-order item in the history of Amazon UK and a perpetual trending topic on Twitter. The reactions from users and reviewers have been mostly positive, but after the lukewarm it’s-ok-but-why-should-switch-from-WinXP attempt that was Vista, the fact that people can’t wait to get their hands on Windows 7 is hardly a surprise.

And, for the most part, it’s true. Annoying security features such as UAC have been fixed in Windows 7 (you can now manually set its annoyance level), the system feels speedier and more responsive (although it really isn’t that much faster when you actually measure it (for example, boot time on both systems is pretty much the same on my computer), but it feels that way, and it’s all that matters), compatibility issues have been fixed. In short, it’s more of a really, really good service pack for Vista than a new OS, but it’s definitely enough to switch from the eight year old Windows XP.

If you’re interested in making the switch, the price is $319 for Windows 7 Ultimate, and $299 for the Professional version ($219 and $199 for the upgrade, respectively). Windows 7 Home Premium will set you back $199, and an upgrade from either Vista or XP will cost you $119.

Tags: microsoft, Windows 7

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How can Windows 7 be bigger than Harry Potter, you ask? That box can’t be more than 15 inches tall, while Daniel Radcliffe is at least 5′8”!

Well, what Amazon meant when they said that was this: Windows 7 is the biggest grossing pre-order product of all time on Amazon.co.uk.

Even Amazon UK’s MD Brian McBride sounds a bit surprised: “The launch of Windows 7 has superseded everyone’s expectations, storming ahead of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as the biggest grossing pre-order product of all-time at Amazon.co.uk, and demand is still going strong.” We’re not; we wrote earlier that Windows 7 is being preordered a lot more than Vista, and that trend obviously hasn’t changed until the very last day.

I’ve been testing Windows 7 since the first beta and while I have my qualms about it, one can’t deny that it’s better than Vista: it feels faster, looks nicer, the unnecessary fat *cough* sidebar *cough* was trimmed and it has a whole lot better hardware and driver support. And one also cannot deny that Windows XP was released in October 2001, which means that Windows users have been waiting eight long years for a decent replacement for their operating system. Tomorrow, they’ll be getting one; no wonder they’re excited.

Tags: amazon, harry potter, Windows 7

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