News

Product Timeline: 2 Key Milestones for Windows 7

• By Kurt Mackie
• January 01, 2009

Bill Veghte, senior vice president for Microsoft's Windows business, discussed Windows 7 in a presentation on Microsoft's business strategies for the Windows product line at the Credit Suisse Annual Technology Conference in Scottsdale, Ariz., in December. Most notable was Veghte's timetable for Microsoft's next operating system: "Our public comments have been to ... release to manufacturing the Windows 7 product by next January, and we're on track for that," he said, referring to January 2010.

Windows 7 will be available first as a beta, followed by the release candidate version and then release to manufacturing (RTM). Veghte didn't exactly specify when the beta would be released, but a Web page advertising Microsoft's MSDN Developer Conference provided a clue, explaining that attendees at the January 2009 MSDN event would receive the "Windows 7 beta 1 DVD."

Developers received a pre-beta of Windows 7 at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2008 in late October. Veghte said the application programming interfaces were complete with that release.

Microsoft expects that the Windows 7 beta will be compatible with existing systems running Windows Vista. When Microsoft first released Vista, the company made fundamental changes in security and graphics that tripped up some of the vendors writing drivers for the OS. However, with the release of Windows 7, "we don't have to change graphics drivers," Veghte said in December.

Microsoft has spent more than 250 hours talking with OEM partners on Windows 7, Veghte said. The company has gathered feedback from both hardware and software providers for the beta release.

Credit Suisse analyst Phil Winslow asked Veghte about Microsoft's up-selling strategy and how the company will structure its premium offerings with Windows 7, but Veghte provided no details beyond saying that that Microsoft would base pricing on its past Windows release experiences.

In that context, the unacknowledged elephant in the room during the talk was the "Vista-capable" lawsuit, in which plaintiffs have accused Microsoft of false advertising. The suit is based on the fact that Microsoft offered a Vista Basic Edition of the operating system that couldn't run prominent features, such as its Aero graphics experience. That decision apparently caused confusion when customers at the low end of the price scale expected Aero to be part of the Vista Basic experience.

Asked about how virtualization would affect Microsoft's hold over its component products, Veghte responded that server-side virtualization would help customers consolidate their unused capacity. On the client side, Veghte described himself as excited about "our ability to continue to drive down the cost of deployment and deliver architectural advancements without [affecting] application capability."

When Winslow inquired about how Microsoft expects to continue pushing out margins in a recessionary environment, Veghte pointed to Microsoft's research and development accomplishments in rolling out the forthcoming Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 products. Microsoft is also extending the Windows experience to the Web via its Live offerings, he added.

Veghte spoke extensively about Microsoft's marketing campaigns as ways for reaching customers. Windows has "almost 80 percent positive reception ... and yet we need to have a conversation about what Windows uniquely offers," he said.

Veghte also pointed to two notable features in Windows 7:

• "Direct Access," a more convenient way for remote users to connect with their offices than the current virtual private network-type connections
• The ability to divide a computer between different "states," such as "work" and "home," by setting up separate groups within Windows 7.