It appears consumers are indeed willing to give Microsoft a second chance at creating a wonder OS, and so far it seems well received.

A private research firm has published statistics comparing the “first few days” of Windows 7 sales, vs. the launch of Windows Vista. Despite the fact that Vista was the more heavily marketed of the two by a wide margin, the study showed that Windows 7 sales trumped the predecessor by 234%, a study Microsoft is sure to be proud of.

Despite the enormous popularity, the profit gain from the launch only rang in at an 82% increase as compared to Vista. This is mainly attributed to the subdued promotion of the rather expensive (and profit padding) Ultimate version. Bad news for Microsoft, great news for consumers; confirming that there are definitely deals to be had.

“Microsoft’s program of early low-cost pre-sales, high visibility marketing, and aggressive deals helped make the Windows 7 software launch successful,” said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD. “In a slow environment for packaged software Windows 7 brought a large number of customers into the software aisles.”

The study continued in comparing the overall growth of PC sales during launch week, which saw a 95% boost in sales of Windows based PCs over the week before the launch of Windows 7. This however was eclipsed by the report that Vista had caused a 170% boost in sales over its preceding week. Overall Windows 7 PC sales were down 6% from comparable Vista PC sales in the first week.

Given the current unfavorable economic climate as compared to the far more stable 2007 conditions, the slight decrease could actually be interpreted as an enormous success.