October’s Patch Tuesday—or as some in security circles have come to call “Terrible Tuesday”—contained fixes for more than 34 vulnerabilities, including one for Windows 7.

Issuing a patch for an operating system that was still more than a week away from general availability would have been a black eye in the days of Windows 98, NT or 2000. Today, it’s almost an expectation. After all, every operating system and application package requires period security updates no matter it stage of development or availability.

Microsoft isn’t repeating the mistakes it made during the launches of XP and Vista by declaring the new operating system “the most secure ever.” During the past two Windows releases, Microsoft had much to prove to the world, since its platform was being sliced and diced by hackers on a daily basis and costing users billions of dollars in lost productivity and compromised data. This time around, though, security is more about the features and functionality than the bravado of secure code and vulnerability risk management.

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Security is a selling point for Windows 7; a clear justification for upgrading installed machines or refreshing aging desktops and laptops. Lower memory requirements and improved functionality are one thing, but solution providers should be talking with customers about the benefits they’re reap by migrating from XP to Win7 (let’s face it, few are going to be upgrading from Vista).

Let’s be kind and honest: security was one of Vista’s strengths. Users were annoyed by the persistent pop-ups that would verify every software install and the firewall was sometimes too restrictive for some Internet-dependent applications. However, Vista has substantially less vulnerabilities than any of its predecessors still in use. Windows 7 retains many of the good security features, including the embedded firewall, antimalware protections and user account controls.

Windows 7 sports security features that reflect the growing need for data protection and integrity while enabling access and availability for an increasingly mobile user base.

Probably the most useful feature is BitLocker To Go, which allows users to seamlessly encrypt data on USB devices. Flash drives and other portable media have become a major headache for businesses since users can save huge amounts of data on these small form factors. Giving users the ability to encrypt data and assign a password to the device will afford another layer of data protection that’s missing in most organizations.

DirectAccess leverages technology developed for IPv6 Internet address protocol to establish direct, secure connections between a remote client and a host network without a VPN. Windows has long had the ability of creating secure connections with Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP), but this method wasn’t seen as robust as IPsec or SSL tunnels. DirectAccess will provide the same seamless application-layer connectivity that many users currently enjoy with Exchange.

Pop-up authorization dialogue boxes were probably the most annoying security feature in Windows Vista. Every time a user wanted to install a new application, he would be prompted with a “do you really want to install this?” warning. Windows 7 eases that burden with application whitelisting; a set of rules that specify what applications are allowed for installation. Windows 7 whitelisting provides an appropriate level of protection against rogue application installations and control mechanisms for useful applications. Auditing features allow admins to verify policy compliance. This is far more efficient than trying to blacklist every unauthorized app that comes over the wire.

Will Windows 7 still suffer the same security problems as Vista, XP and 98? The answer is absolutely yes. As Gartner analyst John Pescatore told eWeek, Microsoft has done a good job in reducing the attack surface of the operating system, which will make it less susceptible to compromise. But Windows 7 need to support thousands of third-party applications and devices means that vulnerabilities always will be part of the equation.

The features included in this release, along with many of the security improvements made over the last two versions of Windows, are more than enough reason for solution providers to use security as a selling point for Windows migration.