Stopping short of admitting the goof and giving away Windows 7 to existing Vista users, Microsoft is offering cheaper upgrades to those who pre-order Windows 7 between June 26 and July 11.  The company will offer free Windows 7 upgrades to anyone who purchases a PC pre-installed with Vista after June 26.

Windows 7 is expected to be the operating system of choice for information technology (IT) managers who make purchasing decisions for corporate users.

"The upcoming introduction of Windows 7 could spur a rapid corporate PC upgrade cycle starting in late 2010/early 2011, catalyzed by the end of support for Windows XP and a recovery-based increase in IT spending," said Jeffries & Co. Inc. analyst Katherine Egbert wrote in a recent research report.

But history shows that a release of a new operating system - no matter how positive the buzz - will translate into only a slight increase in PC sales, Microsoft Senior Vice President Bill Veghte said in a webcast earlier this month. On the business side, enthusiasm is high for Windows 7, but corporations will not rush to upgrade when it is released. The release "will get drowned by the macroeconomic environment," Veghte said. "As the macro environment comes back, people will have to buy new PCs. People aren’t using PCs any less."

Game On

Looking ahead, the tech sector is anticipating a slew of product releases in the year’s second half - many of them in the $22 billion video-game sector, which lives and dies on new releases.

Activision Blizzard Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI), the largest third-party game publisher in the world, will lead the way with the latest in its rock music game series with the September release of "Guitar Hero 5? on four platforms: Sony Corp.’s (NYSE ADR: SNE) PlayStation 2 and 3, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo Co. Ltd.’s (OTC ADR: NTDOY) Wii. The third iteration of "Guitar Hero" became the first video game ever to achieve $1 billion in sales.

But the music from Activision won’t stop with the last strum of a toy guitar: The company will debut "DJ Hero" in October for the same four platforms. "DJ Hero" will ship with a mock turntable and should appeal to fans that don’t turn to rock for their music fix.

Activision will release new titles for proven franchises such as "Modern Warfare" and "Tony Hawk." The first "Modern Warfare" title, released in 2007, has sold 13 million copies worldwide and is one of the best-selling games on Xbox 360. The new "Tony Hawk" game represents the 12th installment in the series since it was started 10 years ago.

While sales of console games typically garner most of the attention, it is Activision’s "World of Warcraft" (WoW) playing the role of its single largest sales generator.