Microsoft unveils free app upgrades for Win 7 users

Geoff Spick
28 June 2010, 9:00 AM


Microsoft is celebrating selling seven copies a second of Windows 7 by releasing a bunch of free app upgrades.


Today, Microsoft announced the latest sales benchmark figures for Windows 7. Having hit the 150 million mark, the company claims on its Windows Team Blog that it is the fastest selling OS in history.

There's no split between retail and enterprise licenses, so we don't know how good uptake really is among upgraders. One stat from Microsoft is that 12% of PCs are now running Windows 7, meaning there are still well over a billion machines to go. Is there going to a prize for the last XP user on the planet when they upgrade?

Microsoft is releasing a collection of new betas of its Live accessory software (you know, the stuff that used to come free with the OS, and is now an optional download, with the advantage that they get updated more often than stuff that's built into the OS). There are improved versions of Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Writer and Mail with improved features for no-budget multimedia types.


There's also a new version of Messenger (which is also available for the iPhone), the Windows 7 version now helps connect to your SkyDrive web-storage and social networking sites to help tie all your social data together. This link should be live by the time you read this so you can try out all the new gear.


Photo Gallery packs in features to make your digital photo management easier

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AlexF (New user):

Available for both, Windows 7 and Vista.

Most important of these Mail (need Windows Mail, nee Outlook Express), Messenger and Movie Maker were built-in into Vista but people were complaining that Vista is bloated, including APC commentators, so, Microsoft removed it for Windows 7. Now, users have to download and installing it themselves.

Now, everyone, follow that black sheep, he knows what he's doing...

28 June 2010, 3:38 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

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