Microsoft Windows 7 sales top 630m

Microsoft claims around half a million PCs are upgrading to Windows 7 everyday, which has helped the firm shift 630 million software licenses since the operating system went on sale in October 2009.

Speaking at the software giant's Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto, Tami Reller, Windows chief marketing officer and chief financial officer, also announced that more than 50 per cent of enterprise desktops now run Windows 7.

More than half a million desktops a day move to Windows 7 and many are moving over from XP.

However, she stopped short of giving enterprise-specific sale figures for Windows 7 or revealing how many business desktops were still running Windows XP.

"The rate of overall Windows 7 adoption is accelerating," said Reller. "More than half a million desktops per day move to Windows 7 and many of them, as you all know, are moving from XP to Windows 7."

However, with the launch date for the next generation of Windows looming large, Reller was keen to stress that investing in Windows 7 is still a good idea.

"For those that need a PC today - and we know there are a lot of people that do we have many outstanding Windows 7 PCs...and they all upgrade easily to Windows 8," she explained.

"If you buy a Windows 7 PC today, you can upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for only $14.99 as soon as [it's] released.

"We hope that gives consumers a lot of comfort to be able to buy today and know they're good for the future."

The business benefits of Windows 8 were also given another airing by Microsoft, with Reller reminding attendees that the next iteration of its operating system will work in Windows 7 environments.

"We are also seeing Windows 8 improve upon the Windows 7 fundamentals [of] speed, reliability, and security...and we also think businesses are going to like having a choice of form factors," added Reller.

Mobile working

She then went on to discuss the benefits of Windows To Go, which will allow end users to boot up Windows 8 on a home or corporate PC from a USB stick.

The storage device could be provisioned by the company's IT department and loaded with all of the corporate applications mobile workers might need, offered Reller.

"It takes full advantage of the of the resources on the system, like the memory and the CPU, and it still has USB ports and other things you would expect on a PC," she said.

"But, it really is its own self-contained Windows installation that is separate from the data on the internal drive of the system. That way it is protected and secure," she added.