Microsoft Windows 7 (Finally) Comes Home

Windows 7 Launch in NYC The Jumbotron in Times Square showing the NASDAQ opening from the Microsoft main campus with Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell. Microsoft

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It's been 10 months since the code for the Windows 7 beta leaked to BitTorrent. That leak was quickly followed by an official free beta release the first week of January and a release candidate in April. Hardware manufacturers have had their hands on the final version since July, and today is finally your day--the day you can buy a machine running Windows 7 pre-installed.

In fact, Microsoft today started selling third-party hardware from their Web site for the first time in tandem with the launch. Obviously there's a lot that's been refined and tweaked with the new Windows, but one of the biggest additions is the incorporation of multitouch display support in the OS's core. So naturally, pretty much every major hardware manufacturer had a landslide of new desktops, laptops and netbooks designed for Win 7. Check out our multiouch hardware gallery to see our picks for the eight best-in-breed Win7 machines.