Worms are the quickest growing security problem for Windows PCs this year according to Microsoft. It comes as “drive-by downloads” and adware become less of a problem.

It took its time in finally arriving but it’s now here at last. Windows 7 went on general sale yesterday around the world. In many ways, the true test for Microsoft’s new operating system now begins. Beta testing is fine but it cannot ever hope to compete with millions of average everyday PC users installing and using the OS on their machines.

If you are upgrading to Windows 7 from XP, or if you are upgrading from Vista but changing editions (for example Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Ultimate rather than Windows 7 Home Premium), you will need to carry out a clean install. Unless you are going to partition your drive, this will mean reformatting your hard drive and wiping out all the data on it. Here are some pointers to minimize the hassle this causes.

Corporate sales of Windows 7 could get off to a good start if businesses follow the advice of a leading analyst firm. Gartner has suggested companies should skip the common policy of avoiding a new operating system until its first service pack.

With 13 patches for a total of 34 problems, it’s a whopper of a Windows Update this month. However, security experts are warning that some fixes should take priority over others.

The whole world is still locked into a recession right now, and one of the sectors hit for consumer spending is technology. But there could be a savior on the horizon, and it’s probably not the one most people would have pictured. That’s right folks, Microsoft is about to save us by releasing Windows 7, an OS that could potentially persuade us all to spend once more.

In the month before Windows 7 is released, monthly figures show the biggest ever switch from XP to Vista. But the gulf between the two remains immense.

The chances are most of us have had a pirated copy of Windows at some point or another. They’re not exactly hard to come by. The problem is probably greatest in China at the moment, with piracy of all kinds out of control. The good news is that four people have been convicted of pirating Windows XP in China. The bad news is this is just the tip of a very large iceberg.

Among the thousands of articles about Windows 7 during its lengthy development process, it’s perhaps inevitable two writers would take the same approach. With pro- and anti- articles this week, it’s time to see whose “seven good reasons” to switch from XP to Windows 7 stands up best.

Microsoft was last week hit by an injunction stating it could no longer sell Word, an integral part of Microsoft Office, in its current form. This was due to a patent infringement lawsuit by i4i concerning XML. However, it looks as though the situation isn’t as serious as first thought and Microsoft could have a couple of very easy options to solve the legal woes.

Windows 7 is now out in the wild and only a couple of months away from being available to everyone who wants it. Which means the Windows Vista era is over, that is if it ever actually existed in the first place. Sure, Vista had a couple of years as Microsoft’s leading operating system, but it didn’t exactly set the world alight in that time.

Are you planning to upgrade to Windows 7 come Oct. 22 when the new OS is released to general availability? Then good luck, because judging by the upgrade chart released by Microsoft it’s a confusing and complicated business.

Now and again a buyer of a computer with Windows pre-installed will go through the usually lengthy battle to get a refund for the cost of the operating system and instead switch to Linux. But a British Amazon customer appears to have got one of the most-hassle free refunds ever seen.

It’s little news to followers of tech sites that upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 could be a whole bunch of hassle. But now mainstream news sources are starting to spread that message to the masses.

Windows XP is the operating system that literally refuses to die. It was released in 2001, has already been succeeded once, by Vista, and yet continues to be the Microsoft OS of choice for most people. Will Windows 7 finally manage to kill XP off and persuade those hanging on to it with both hands to finally let go?