A new national customer satisfaction survey revealed that Americans are now more satisfied with Microsoft’s software than ever. The poll conducted by American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a consumer survey started by the University of Michigan, showed that Microsoft accumulated 79 points which is the three-point increase, a 7% gain, over 2009’ results.

The results thus placed Microsoft's rating at its highest level since ACSI began questioning Americans about the quality of computer software in 2006. It also proved that the Vista failure is now left behind, said David VanAmburg, the ACSI's director.

"Microsoft's continued improvement over the last three years suggests that we're out of the Vista phenomenon," said VanAmburg, referring to the hammering Microsoft took after it launched Vista in early 2007 with nearly-instant bad reviews.

Microsoft's ACSI rating has improved each of the last three years after dipping as low as 69 in 2008, the second year of Vista's general availability.

Its successor, Windows 7, launched in October 2009 rave reviews. Microsoft recently said it had sold 350 million licenses to Windows 7 since then.

However, VanAmburg warned that the score is not the index of Microsoft’s separate improvement. "While this is good news for Microsoft, its rate of improvement is about the same as the industry as a whole," said VanAmburg.

ACSI's "Other" category for software, which includes products made by any vendor except Microsoft, climbed two points to 79, an increase of 5%. That category's rating was also a record.

"So Microsoft is just keeping pace with a growing sense of satisfaction in software," said VanAmburg.

He attributed the increase of satisfaction in software to a maturation of the industry. "Software has generally gotten easier to use over the years, and has had fewer glitches," VanAmburg said. "Gone are the days when software would come out, followed immediately by patches. We don't see that as much now."