Party Hardy, Microsoft Sells 240 Million Copies of Windows 7

Windows 7 turned one year old this week, and Microsoft has reason to celebrate. Two hundred and forty million reasons, to be exact, which is how many copies of Windows 7 Microsoft has sold in the past 12 months.

"I think Windows 7 has exceeded expectations," said Gavriella Schuster, general manager of Windows Product Management. "People from the very beginning have had an optimistic forecast. I actually felt in the beginning we needed to temper expectations a bit… but a year later, we’re on track. We’re right where we thought we would be. It’s been a good year – it’s a year to celebrate."

Turns out releasing such a crappy OS beforehand (Vista) created ravenous demand for an OS that actually worked as it should from Day 1.