Southwest Networks, a provider of information technology support services for school districts, local governments and small businesses in the Coachella Valley, celebrated the launch of Windows 7.

Valley business people streamed into the North Palm Springs business' open house-type event Friday to check out demonstrations of the new Microsoft Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010 and to check out other technological items on display, including phone and security systems.

“It's what Windows Vista should have been,” Matt Disher, vice president of sales for Southwest Networks, said of the much-maligned previous-generation Microsoft operating system.

“It's clean, it's smartened up.”

Ryan Vance, a representative of Hewlett-Packard, discussed and demonstrated the features of Windows 7 Professional, an operating system designed for small businesses.

He demonstrated that the boot-up time for Windows 7 is about 45 seconds faster than that of Vista.

Other performance improvements include fewer interruptions and prompts, an instant-search function that lets you search on your computer the same way you search the Internet, and a “Pin” feature that lets you keep programs and files handy by pinning them to the task bar or Jump Lists.

Southwest Networks, doing business in the desert for the past 13 years — with a staff of 15 employees — hosted the event to help familiarize its clients with some of the latest business-solution technology.

The company is also a Hewlett-Packard warranty service center.

“Anything HP, we can get it repaired under warranty,” Disher said.

Nick Werner, information technology manager for the city of Indian Wells, was among the attendees. Southwest Networks provides the city network assistance and equipment, including HP servers, HP work stations and phone systems.

“It's great having a local company and local expertise” providing supportive services to the city, Werner said.

Werner said it's a comfort knowing that if he's out of the area and a system goes down, there's someone nearby who can step in and help.

“People that have knowledge about the infrastructure and the experience to provide a backup,” Werner said.