Despite the fact that Microsoft has progressed in a number of ways, ever since its Windows Vista fiasco, the company's ever-enthusiastic CEO, Steve Ballmer, has projected that Microsoft's forthcoming Windows 7 operating system, scheduled for an October 22 release, is not likely to have any substantial effect on sales of PCs.

The rather low expectations from Windows 7 apparently are based on PC-sales related projections from market research firms like IDC, which expects the worldwide sales of PCs - which is the key force driving the sales of operating systems - to plunge nearly 1 percent this year.

Furthermore, the Wall Street expects that Microsoft's revenue figures for the fiscal year ending June 2010 will likely be 'flat.'

Nonetheless, a deeper analysis of the Microsoft scenario seemingly presents a brighter picture - not only has the company gained market share after the launch of its Bing search engine; it has also got the better side of its association with Yahoo; and is probably nearing a settlement of the irksome European Union antitrust problems.

Deutsche Bank has estimated that Microsoft will expectedly reap nearly $500 million in additional revenue after the Windows 7 release, even if 2 percent of the Vista users upgrade to the new OS without buying new machines. Moreover, once companies are content with the performance of the new OS, many of them will like to opt for newer machines!