At the same time, Microsoft admitted that it has not solved two lingering problems that can cause SSDs -- mostly lower-end, older ones -- to perform sluggishly or even worse than conventional hard drives.

Out of the box, Windows 7 should install and "operate efficiently on SSDs without requiring any customer intervention," Microsoft distinguished engineer Michael Fortin wrote in a posting at the

Users of Windows 7 -- the Release Candidate 1 became available -- will experience the full benefit of SSDs in areas where the storage technology shines.

Small chunks of data can be read about 100 times faster from an SSD than a hard drive, since an SSD doesn't require a rotating disk head to be physically repositioned, Fortin wrote. SSDs will also read large files such as videos up to twice as fast as a hard drive, wrote Fortin. Many SSDs will also write large files more quickly than a hard drive, especially when the SSD is new or empty.

The first generation of SSDs introduced mostly via netbooks two years ago were largely a disappointment, as they were slower and pricier than expected. But performance gains, as well as falling prices, have many PC makers excited anew about SSDs. Asus Inc. has debuted with a 512-GB SSD that will run Windows 7 when it becomes available.