Microsoft confirms Windows 7 target release date as January 2010

Windows 7, the replacement to the disastrous Windows Vista, is coming. It’s just a matter of when, which is a question that came closer to being answered over the last week with Microsoft finally giving a hint over the release date.

Windows Vista has been nothing short of a disaster for Microsoft. Oh it’s sold in okay numbers, but only because Microsoft has essentially forced PC manufacturers to switch from pre-installing Windows XP to the new operating system instead. In terms of customer satisfaction though, Vista has been a terrible product for Microsoft, and the sooner it is put out to pasture, the better.

Step forward Windows 7, the next (hopefully great) OS from Microsoft. Windows 7 has been subject to speculation since the middle of last year, with users looking to the future as soon as they realised how rubbish Windows Vista actually is. Last October saw Microsoft show off the Windows 7 MinWin, a tiny Windows kernel which will eventually form the basis for the full operating system.

This year has so far seen two important things going on. Firstly, Windows XP users have been fighting for their favourite OS to stay around, with full support from Microsoft until Windows 7 gets a release. Secondly, the release date of Windows 7 has been subject to many rumours with some experts and analysts claiming it will appear in 2009, while others thought 2011 was much more likely.

We now have the first official word from Microsoft on the subject, with a letter sent to enterprise and business customers last Tuesday by vice president of Microsoft Bill Veghte claiming January 2010 is the current date that a Windows 7 release is being targeted for.

Some of you may have heard about “Windows 7″, which is the working name for the next release of Microsoft Windows. We have learned a great deal through the feedback you have shared with us about Windows Vista and that feedback is playing an important role in our work on Windows 7.

You have told us you want a more regular, predictable Windows release schedule. To this end, our plan is to deliver Windows 7 approximately 3 years after the January 2007 general availability launch date of Windows Vista.

It’s important to note that this is obviously a target release date rather than being set in stone and unmovable. With Microsoft’s history for changing release dates around to allow more development time, I’d suggest this is very likely to shift backwards, but 2010 does seem a good bet.

Three years isn’t a very long time for a turnover of operating systems, but when you consider that most people have, and continue to, stick to XP, which came out in 2001, it’s a fair amount of time to have to wait.

In the same letter, Veghte seemed to indicate a shift towards keeping Windows XP around for a while longer than was originally planned. It seems that with Bill Gates gone at last, Microsoft is actually starting to listen to feedback from its customers. Wonders will never cease.

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