Microsoft gives green light to early Windows 7 PC sales

Microsoft has given small system builders the green light to start selling new Windows 7 PCs more than a week before the general launch date of Oct. 22, a Seattle-area computer maker said today.

According to Jon Bach, the president of Puget Systems, several Microsoft representatives have told him that his company, which sells custom PCs nationally out of its Auburn, Wash. facility, can install Windows 7 on new machines, then sell and ship them to customers on Oct. 13.

That date is nine days before the worldwide Oct. 22 launch Microsoft has touted, when Windows 7 upgrades are to go on sale at retail -- and when large computer manufacturers, such as HP and Dell, will start selling systems.

"For us [system builders], we can buy the OEM editions of Windows 7, which should be hitting distributors no later than Oct. 12, and put them in the hands of our customers on Oct. 13 at the latest," said Bach.

Bach said he had Microsoft's okay in writing.

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