Windows 7 Already Hits 100 Million Licenses

Apr 27 2010, 12:00pm CDT | by Jordan Cressman

Windows 7 is now installed on 10% of the world's PCs. With over 100 million licenses sold in just 6 months, that makes it the fastest-selling operating system ever.

The new OS was launched last October, to much less fanfare and celebration than the release of the would-be flop Windows Vista. Regardless, it's been selling like hotcakes.

What's driving those sales? According to Silicon.com, it's the fact that businesses are willing to convert, after most of them avoided Vista like the plague.

The site reports that nearly half of IT departments in the private sector have shown interest in migrating to Windows 7, most of which probably haven't upgraded their systems yet from Windows XP.

Microsoft's recent quarterly earnings report revealed that its Windows division grew by 28% over last year, and those numbers are likely to go up even further as Windows 7 escalates into the full adoption phase.