The generally favorable opinion of Windows 7 seems to be doing a lot of good for the operating system's shipments as NPD has seen initial sales of 7 surpassing those of Windows Vista, at least in the US. According to NPD, first week boxed unit sales and pre-orders of Windows 7 were 234% higher than Vista's, while the revenue growth for 7 was of 82%.

The smaller rise in cash is due to early discounts on pre-sales and the smaller emphasis on the Ultimate edition. This has seen most people focus on getting the Home Premium edition, the upgrade version of the SKU actually being the best seller, followed by the Windows 7 Professional upgrade and the Home Premium Family Pack upgrade.

"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 Windows 7 sales were good, those of Windows PCs weren't as impressive. Total Windows-based PC sales were up 95% over the week prior to 7's launch and that may seem like a lot but PCs did better back in the Vista days, going up 170% over the week before its release.