For Microsoft, the release of the latest version of its Windows operating system was always going to be one of the most important events for 2009.

Much was riding on Windows 7 after the mixed reception given to Vista, especially with rivals such as Apple's Mac OS X said to be tempting buyers away from the PC platform.

Now that the dust has settled, Windows 7 seems to have been well received, with almost universally favourable reviews appearing in the press following the official launch on 22 October. Our own review found much to like about the new operating system, which cut out some of the bloat of Windows Vista while adding user interface improvements and new features such as Home Group to make networking easier.

There also seem to have been few difficulties so far with Windows 7, especially when compared with Vista, which lacked drivers for some common hardware components at its launch.

Initial sales also seem to have been impressive, with Microsoft reporting figures from the NPD Group in the US showing that Windows 7 sales for the first few days were 234 per cent higher than for Windows Vista within the same timeframe.

"Unlike the apathy and downright hostility that greeted Vista, the worst case reaction to Windows 7 seems to be indifference, while my own experience has been quite positive," said Richard Edwards, principal analyst at Ovum.

Edwards added that there has been a range of reactions among businesses he has spoken with, but that many of them have better things to spend their money on right now.

However, there has been some negative reaction to Windows 7, with some users regarding it as little more than a service pack to fix the flaws of Vista, while others have objected to the difficulty of upgrading from Windows XP.

Meanwhile, analyst firm Gartner said that Windows 7 has given only a modest boost to PC hardware sales, although it expects this to change in 2010 when many businesses are likely to refresh their PC inventory.

Even in the consumer space, Windows 7 is not necessarily driving up demand for new PCs beyond that expected, according to Gartner.

"We are expecting a modest bump in fourth-quarter consumer demand as vendors promote new Windows 7-based PCs, but the attraction will be the new PCs, not Windows 7," said research director George Shiffler.

Some light can be shed on the situation by the results of a poll conducted by V3.co.uk around the time of the Windows 7 launch. About 40 per cent of respondents said they intended to upgrade, while another 14 per cent said they would not upgrade immediately because of costs. Another nine per cent said they intend to wait for the first service pack, due sometime in 2010, according to the rumour mill.

But more worrying for Microsoft is the 12 per cent who stated that they are happy with their current platform and are sticking with it, or the 10 per cent who claim to be switching to Macs.

If the majority of the 12 per cent of refuseniks can be assumed to be XP users, then a small but significant number of people still see no reason to move up to Windows 7, until they come to invest in a new PC, perhaps.

However, research released by Citrix indicates that 56 per cent of IT professionals in the UK and Ireland expect to migrate to Windows 7 within the next year, and that proportion rises to 91 per cent by the close of 2011.

If these figures prove reliable, it looks like Windows 7 is eventually set to do what Vista could not, and replace XP as the dominant platform for both businesses and consumers.