Microsoft Corp., the world’s biggest software maker, reported a 29 percent drop in profit and sales that missed analysts’ estimates, a sign that expense reductions weren’t enough to make up for declining sales of personal-computer software. The shares fell 7.1 percent.

Fourth-quarter net income was $3.05 billion, or 34 cents a share, compared with $4.3 billion, or 46 cents, a year earlier, the Redmond, Wash.-based company said yesterday in a statement. Revenue, including Windows sales deferred to a future quarter, was $13.1 billion, compared with the $14.5 billion predicted by analysts.

Sales of Microsoft’s Windows software dropped 29 percent, after the PC market contracted for three straight quarters.

Some customers are holding off purchases until a new version of Windows comes out in October. Demand for Office software and advertising on Microsoft’s Web sites also waned.

“It’s a real disappointment,” said Brendan Barnicle, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities in Portland, Ore. “It’s a significant miss” in revenue.

To slash costs, Microsoft announced the first job cuts in its history in January, eliminating about 5,000 positions.