Almost no one found Microsoft Corp.'s last attempt at a new operating system, Windows Vista, very entertaining.
So when it came time for the software giant to create the sequel, it hoped a little Hollywood touch would bring audiences back to its screens.
Jonathan Wiedemann, the former managing director of Propaganda Films, which made groundbreaking MTV videos as well as films such as "Wild at Heart" and "Madonna: Truth or Dare," has for the last three years been leading a team responsible for a key feature on the Windows 7 operating system, the much-hyped upgrade to Vista that Microsoft will begin selling today.
If the early reviews are any indication, Wiedemann and Microsoft may have a hit. Critics who have tested preview copies seem to like it, and businesses say they plan to buy it.
The stakes are high. Sales of the operating system -- essentially the software on top of which all other software runs -- brought in more than $10 billion in profit last year, more than half of Microsoft's net income.
But Windows sales have been slipping, in part because of the economy and in part because Vista was so poorly reviewed that many customers decided to keep their old computers, running Windows XP. In addition, rivals Apple Inc. and Google Inc. continued to eat into Microsoft's market share and mercilessly mock the company for being "user-unfriendly."
"If we started to hear the things about Windows 7 that we heard about Vista, people would have turned their backs on it," said Laura DiDio, principal analyst at Information Technology Intelligence Corp., a research and consulting firm in Boston. "That would have been disastrous for Microsoft."
In developing Windows 7, Microsoft needed redemption, and that meant re-booting the way it developed software, including wresting some control away from engineers and working more closely with computer makers.
"One of the issues with previous operating systems, Vista for example, was that you had a lot of people doing smart things without thinking of the larger picture," said Wiedemann, who also once modeled for Richard Avedon and was married to actress Isabella Rossellini.
If Windows 7 is a hit, much of the credit is expected to go to Windows division President Steven Sinofsky, who used to lead development of Microsoft's Office suite of software -- Word, Excel, PowerPoint -- and was tapped to bring order to developing the operating system. Sinofsky instituted a streamlined process and brought in new managers.
