Software supplier Microsoft on Friday claimed that it sold more than 350 million Windows 7 licenses over the last one and a half year.

Microsoft Windows 7 Operating System was released on 22nd of October, 2009. Gaining market share inch-by-inch, Windows 7 now accounts for 24.17 per cent as compared with a market share of 12.68 per cent in May last year.

At the end of last year, Windows 7 stood at 20 per cent of the market, representing a gain of more than 13 per cent from the year’s beginning. On the other hand, Windows XP and Windows Vista lost nearly 10 percentage points and 5 percentage points to settle at to 56.72 and 12.11 per cent of the market, respectively.

Releasing the encouraging figures, a spokesperson for Microsoft said, “We've done a lot in the last 18 months that improves upon the experience people have on their PCs with Windows 7.”

The spokesperson added that they enhanced the Windows experience for users by launching Windows Live Wave 4, the first service pack for Windows 7, and the most efficient version of browser, IE9.

Microsoft’s next Windows OS, Windows 8, which will features more Cloud-based features, enhanced UI, Zune Music and support for Kinect, is widely expected to appear in mid 2012.