Microsoft getting fewer calls for support of Windows 7 is, at first glance, a good thing. In fact, they are getting about half the number of support calls they expected. Now, Microsoft is pretty good at launching software so this is quite a surprise. Does that mean that, somehow, the fit and finish of this product is far superior to previous incarnations of the ubiquitous operating system product family. Not necessarily. There is no hard data that definitively pinpoints where all the problems have gone. There is a pretty good evidence emerging that users are becoming more resourceful via self-help resources like social media i.e Twitter and Google.

In a recent post on Ars Technica,  Emil Protalinski gets Microsoft’s take on this phenomenon:

“Overall we are finding our call center volume is down significantly more than we expected,” Barbara Gordon, vice president of customer support for Microsoft, told CNET. The drop in the number of calls doesn’t necessarily mean, however, that Windows 7 has fewer problems than Windows Vista. Microsoft added two online resources leading up to the operating system’s release that may have made the difference. “What we have found is we are seeing far more take-up of self-service…forums and Twitter to get responses.”

I have converted all of my office computers and laptops (except the Macs of course) to Windows 7 (saving one Vista Ultimate and XP SP3 for specialized apps). My own experience was generally less installation headaches (except finding certain drivers).  Where I was pulling my hair out with Vista issues, I am wasting less of my small company resources and finding more outlets with answers.

What has your experience been?