In a recent announcement, Microsoft revealed that the sales of ‘Windows 7’ licenses has surpassed the 150 million mark; with one copy of the new operating system selling every seven seconds.

Noting that Windows 7 has become the fastest selling operating system thus far, Microsoft spokesman Brandon LeBlanc said in a Wednesday blog post that a chunk of the 150 million sales of the new OS have come from businesses which finally decided to upgrade from Windows XP, after having given the problem-plagued Windows Vista a miss.

In addition to disclosing the enviable sales numbers of Windows 7 OS, Microsoft also announced the availability of the “Wave 4 beta” – the next generation of Microsoft’s Windows Line Essentials software which includes Windows Live Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Messenger, Mail, Writer, and Sync.

According to Jamie Cannon, Windows Live Essentials’ group product manager, the next generation of the Windows Live Essentials suite – which appears to be potential competitor to Apple’s iLife suite for the Mac – can be considered a “free upgrade to Windows.”

Meanwhile, referring to Microsoft’s strategy of connecting local and online software, Cannon told PCMag. com: “We're going to connect Windows to the cloud with Windows Live, but we're going to respect the privacy of it. It's not an either or proposition between PC and the cloud. It's blended: The two are going to coexist.”