Software giant, Microsoft said on Thursday that the sales of its flagship product, the Windows operating system increased by 4 per cent in the third quarter.

The company's Windows division recorded a growth in sales of 4 percent from over the previous year to US $ 4.6 billion. The increase was backed by a high demand for licenses for Windows 7. It is the second time in six quarters that the company managed to record growth in the quarter over the previous year.

"We're driving toward exciting launches across the entire company, while delivering strong financial results," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

The increase in sales have quelled suggestions that the company will find it difficult to sell Windows to consumer as many have moved to tablet computers while others have delayed their decision to buy Windows until the company releases a new version.

Meanwhile, Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Washington, has said that it will launch three different versions of its latest desktop operating system including Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro and Windows RT for different types of users as per their requirements.