Microsoft Hopes For A Fresh Start With Windows 7

JESSICA MINTZ

SEATTLE (AP) — Microsoft Corp. finally got its chance to reboot its reputation Thursday, launching a new edition of Windows that it hopes will encourage more PC buyers to get back into stores.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer celebrated the arrival of Windows 7 in New York with a few hundred people who had helped test early versions of the software that runs PCs. One of them, technology consultant, Jonathan Kay, flew from Toronto to attend.

"Windows 7 will redeem Windows," said Kay, 27.

Some retailers had opened at midnight to give customers an early shot at buying a new PC or a disc that they could use to put Windows 7 on their existing computers. Such upgrade discs start at $120.

Among the stores was a Fry's Electronics in Renton, Wash., several miles south of Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond. Mike Naramor, 55, who runs a consulting business called My Computer Guy, was one of about 50 people who were waiting outside when Fry's opened.

"We're geeks, that's what geeks do," he said. "This is our excitement."