Microsoft sure is a different company than it was a few years ago. Well now it looks like they have sold 400 million Windows 7 copies and 100 million Office 2010 copies. And now the Windows 8 public beta is set to make an appearance at CES 2012.

Those numbers make it the fastest-selling OS in history. Many of us will go ahead and spend another $100 on the newest Windows version and complete the cycle all over again. Microsoft is pretty happy about that tonight.

We love choice. That’s why we have so many flavors of ice cream and it’s also why our gadgets come in so many colors and with so many varied options. Now that we are all hungry for ice cream, I’ll get to the point. Rumor is that Microsoft will offer at least four different versions of Windows 8 for devices with ARM processors. According to Renee James, Intel’s senior vice president and general manager of Software and Services Group, Windows versions that run on ARM devices will be focused on tablets and other mobile devices.

Are you tired of Microsoft having too many versions of their OS? This might be a problem for them. We will have to wait and see. But I think most of us just want one or two options for the OS, so we can make a hassle free choice and be done with it.

In late July, Microsoft will release the first Service Pack for Windows 7, but don’t expect any significant performance enhancements that will improve the overall OS experience. It doesn’t need any heavy fixes.

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is just a combination of existing updates, outside of the new Remote Desktop to support new Windows Server 2008 SP1 features. Luckily, Windows 7 doesn’t need the same kind of service pack that Vista required just to be stable. The public beta of SP1 will be released at the end of July and the final version will be released soon after.

Microsoft has shown off some screenshots of 3D games on the new Windows Phone 7 platform, and from the looks of them, the games look pretty awesome. The new Windows Phone 7 handsets feature NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 chipset, which can produce good quality 3D graphics.

With games looking this good, the iPhone may have some serious competition. Game developers are sure paying attention to the Windows Phone 7 platform now if they weren’t before.

Not surprisingly, the launch of Windows 7 has triggered at least a temporary spike in PC sales according to Morgan Stanley analyst Katheryn Huberty. Computer sales jumped about 40 percent during the week of Microsoft’s OS launch compared to the same period a year earlier.

That number is in part offset by buyers holding off on their purchases during the previous two weeks, when sales dropped 29 percent and then 2 percent versus 2008, but is well above earlier weeks, when sales were up by at most 19 percent.

Yesterday we told you about the Japanese arm of Burger King offering a seven-pattie Whopper which costs 777 yen. It was all to celebrate the release of Windows 7. Some of you thought it was just for promotion and that the burgers would not be made or eaten. Others just drooled like Homer Simpson.

But we now have 46 seconds of video footage that shows how you would eat such a monster burger. This brave man takes his meat competitor like a true champ. If only his jaws could dis-locate.

Microsoft is promoting Windows 7 in Japan with the help of Burger King, who is offering a Windows 7 Whopper. And they really mean Whopper this time as it has seven patties in an otherwise normal Whopper. It measures 5.1 inches tall and costs 777 yen ($8.53).

Microsoft has repeated the “seven” theme in multiple publicity events, but none so tasty as this one. I wonder how many of these Whoppers they will sell.

Those living in Europe will have a few versions of the upcoming Windows 7. The operating system is called Windows 7 E and will leave out Internet Explorer as well as other browsers so that users can choose their own browser.

It’s a regulation that Microsoft will work around by offering free copies of IE8 to OEMs. Consumers will be able to choose their own copies through CD, FTP or retail channels.

It was pretty clear that the latest incarnation of Windows would be available this fall. Now Microsoft has announced the date. The latest version of the Windows operating system, Windows 7, will hit general commercial availability on Oct. 22.

That should give you plenty of time to choose which of the million versions is good for you. Will you be buying a copy?

Looks like Microsoft is in the final stages of getting their Windows Mobile 6.5 OS update ready for public release. Window’s Marketplace mobile application is almost ready for launch. And so, Microsoft has given a few lucky Windows Mobile users a sneak peek at the Windows Marketplace.

The “coming soon” notification has been replaced by a functional mobile application store. The Pandora application is also ready for download.

On May 5th, general users will have access to Windows 7 for one full year. It is already available for download for MSDN and TechNet subscribers. This is only the Release Candidate version and will expire on June 1, 2010. The Release Candidate is basically the near finished product and the final stage in testing.

Supposedly it will have all the features of the final version. We still don’t know when the final version will be released but according to rumors it’ll be late 2009 or early 2010. Windows 7 features a bunch of new features including a new taskbar, libraries, jump lists, and more. Windows 7 will also come packaged with the newest Internet Explorer (IE8).

The upcoming Windows 7 Starter Edition seems kinda lame when you consider that it can only run three applications at a time, but if you are using it with a netbook, it makes a little more sense. Most people use netbooks to browse the Internet and maybe check their email, with some MP3s playing in the background.

And since more applications are becoming Web-based, those applications can be stored online instead. We will be keeping an eye on Windows 7 Starter Edition to see just how well it fares. Of all the Windows 7 editions, this one is the oddest.

Coca Cola has more up its sleeve than just high fructose corn syrup and sugar. The company is coming out with a Windows-powered vending machine that will gather more statistics than any other vending machine on the market.

The machine will offer more types of drinks and flavors of Coke and will also keep track of what was sold and when, thus giving Coca-Cola some valuable intel with which to fight the cola wars. The vending machine can also alert the restaurant’s owner, and Coca-Cola, when one of the cartridges is almost empty.

Sotec’s latest netbook is Hello Kitty-branded, but don’t let that fool you. It packs some heat when it comes to performance. Powered by an Intel Atom N270 1.60-GHZ processor and 1GB of RAM, it runs Windows 7 with ease, as you’ll see in the video below.

The netbook performed decently with normal web surfing with data being transferred in the background and also when opening 400 pictures in Bridge. Need more? Even while editing in Photoshop CS3 with that 1.6 Ghz Atom CPU and 1 GB of RAM.

Some user feedback of Windows Mobile 6.5 has led to some changes in its UI. The most obvious change is the removal of the honeycomb. It may still have Trix and Lucky Charms hidden away inside somewhere, but the honeycomb is gone.

The icon grid is still arranged in the same way, but the actual hexagonal icon containers are no more. The second most obvious change would have to be the new scrolling, which limits flick scrolling to one page at a time once.