Windows 7 is an all-ages show

My great aunt is 92 and, as of Friday, she's a Windows 7 PC.

Now, Hilda is already not your typical nonagenarian. She is frequently online, does her finances in Quicken and recently abandoned AOL for Gmail (something I still haven't gotten my parents to do).

Unfortunately, while her mind is quick as ever, her Windows XP PC had slowed dramatically over the past few years, becoming nearly unusable. It's one of those things that many find so irksome about Windows PCs.

In any case, Hilda (I'm sparing her some spam by not including her last name) decided she needed a new computer and I offered to help. It was just a day after Windows 7 had made its debut and we headed to a local computer store. I found her a basic PC, monitor, and printer for $450 after rebate. She didn't really need the monitor, but it helped me a great deal as I transferred all of her files from her old PC to the new one.

If it were still the Windows Vista days, I might have been tempted to downgrade her new computer to Windows XP, so she wouldn't have to adjust to the new operating system.

But, with Windows 7 working so well, I actually felt comfortable she could make the switch, even though she's at the other end of the age spectrum from Kylie.

It took me almost no time to set up the new computer, but several hours to transfer over her settings and documents and then re-install Quicken and her other programs.

Amazing techie that she is, it took her almost no time to adjust to Windows 7's new look and feel. It's a few days in and I'm glad to report that things have continued to be smooth.

"It really is not very different from the XP I used before," she told me in an e-mail this week.

Macs and PCs found shacking up

While the number of Apple-owning households continues to grow, the vast majority of those Macs are sharing space with at least one Windows-based PC, according to a new study.

The NPD Group said Monday that its online survey found that 12 percent of households with a computer have at least one Mac, up from 9 percent a year ago. Nearly 85 percent of those with a Mac, though, also have at least one Windows-based PC.

Overall, Mac owners tend to have more computers and more electronic devices than non-Mac owners. Two-thirds of those with an Apple machine have three or more computers, compared with 29 percent of Windows-only houses.

Houses with Macs also tend to be home to twice as many gadgets, including more iPods and GPS systems than are present in non-Mac abodes.

That makes me feel a bit better about my own domicile, which is home to several Macs and PCs, not to mention more gadgets than I care to admit. There's another reason, though, why Apple owners tend to have more digital gear than their non-Mac-possessing counterparts.

"While Apple owners tend to own more computers and more electronics devices, there is also a high correlation among Apple owners and more affluent consumer households," NPD analyst Stephen Baker said in a statement. "Thirty-six percent of Apple computer owners reported household incomes greater than $100,000, compared to 21 percent of all consumers. With a higher household income, though, it's not a surprise that those consumers are making more electronics purchases."

NPD compiled its results from 2,300 responses to its online survey.