Microsoft: Windows 7 on track

Update 4:10 p.m., with additional comments from CEO Steve Ballmer.

Windows unit head Bill Veghte said on Thursday that Windows 7 development remains on track.

The company has officially said it would ship by January 2010, but top executives have also said from time to time that it would be done by the end of 2009.

"The product is tracking very, very well," Veghte said. "We are committed and looking good, relative to our commitment--(shipping Windows 7) three years from general availability of Windows Vista."

Microsoft has released few details on the product, largely assuring customers that it would be making big architectural changes and that it will have a new multitouch user interface.

Video: Multi-Touch in Windows 7

Most of Veghte's talk, as expected, was on Windows Vista and how Microsoft sees a large perception gap. Veghte showed the Mojave Project, first detailed here, in which users predisposed against Vista reacted favorably when shown Vista when it was presented under the guise of being a new version of Windows, code-named Mojave.

Even outside focus groups, Veghte said that not only are customers buying the operating system, but more are liking it, pointing to recent internal figures showing that 89 percent of users said they were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with the product. Some 83 percent said they would recommend Vista to a friend or family member, Veghte said.

He also demoed Internet Explorer 8, which he said would be released in final form later this year. An early beta was shown off at the Mix '08 trade show in the spring.

Update: In the closing Q and A session, CEO Steve Ballmer was asked what Windows 7 would look like, but declined to offer any new details saying to do so would be a "no-win" situation.

"It's going to look great; It's going to be quite compatible," he said, to some laughter. "If I wanted to start selling Windows 7 today, we'd start selling windows 7 today. Then you'd complain."

He did reiterate what has already been said, saying that Windows 7 is designed to avoid making big changes. "The design point is compatible form the get-go in large measure," he said.

[Hammerhand]

Vista sucks.

It's one of, if not _the_ most unstable MS OSes I've ever used.

Things just don't work like they're supposed to. I'm either "downgrading" to an infinitely more stable XP, or buying a Mac next go round.

[Hammerhand]

Vista sucks.

It's one of, if not _the_ most unstable MS OSes I've ever used.

Things just don't work like they're supposed to. I'm either "downgrading" to an infinitely more stable XP, or buying a Mac next go round.

[Perry_Clease]

Still on "track" eh? So who is in charge of the clattering train?

http://www.emule.com/2poetry/phorum/read.php?7,153503

[polaris20]

You must be doing something wrong then, because it's fine on the many machines we have running it in my office. Perhaps you don't know what you're doing?

It's far more stable then 98 or ME ever were.

[chrgeorgeson]

This was a horrible blog. Just to let everyone know, my bowel movement is also on track for about an hour away.

Thanks for all that wonderful insight to recycled news that's been presented about Windows 7 and the Mojave report (which was interesting) that you reported about earlier this morning.

[chrgeorgeson]

This was a horrible blog. Just to let everyone know, my bowel movement is also on track for about an hour away.

Thanks for all that wonderful insight to recycled news that's been presented about Windows 7 and the Mojave report (which was interesting) that you reported about earlier this morning.

[chrisaroz]

The home page says:
"...still scheduled to ship within three years of Vista's January 2008 debut. "

But I thought Vista came out in 2007, right?

[stalexone]

I generally try to find every reason I can to run Linux on my machines, and was recently thinking of buying a Mac. After one bad start with Vista (I got a blue screen), I continued to think about Mac and Linux in my computing future. But then I bought a used laptop and installed Vista myself (complete not upgrade) and have not had any trouble whatsoever. I have done this now on other laptops and desktops and have had very positive results. Looking back, I now realize that the blue-screen I suffered when using Vista the first time was a result of a faulty memory stick that I put in...not Vista itself. So if you are having problems with Vista at this point, you probably have a hardware issue, not an OS issue. And definitely install using the Complete Install option, not the Upgrade option.

[Jon N.]

Fascinating. Microsoft actually had to "Trick" focus groups into thinking this was Vista. That says a lot. If M$ is having to doop people to try their products now, what will be next? When "Mohave", Windows 7 comes out (2010), Apple, Ubuntu, and OpenSUSE will have had at least 2-4 major update releases on their Operating Systems. Microsoft may have the lions' share of off-the-shelf compatibility, but this lion is old, and there are younger, stronger lions (Apple being the one to attempt it) looking to take over the pride. If Vista is any indication, Mohave 7 will be a make or breaking point for Microsoft. They better get it right. Apple already has, and Linux is looking better every day.

[Jon N.]

Fascinating. Microsoft actually had to "Trick" focus groups into thinking this was Vista. That says a lot. If M$ is having to doop people to try their products now, what will be next? When "Mohave", Windows 7 comes out (2010), Apple, Ubuntu, and OpenSUSE will have had at least 2-4 major update releases on their Operating Systems. Microsoft may have the lions' share of off-the-shelf compatibility, but this lion is old, and there are younger, stronger lions (Apple being the one to attempt it) looking to take over the pride. If Vista is any indication, Mohave 7 will be a make or breaking point for Microsoft. They better get it right. Apple already has, and Linux is looking better every day.

[jmannewsie5]

polaris20

the fact that you would even consider comparing Vista to an OS from ten year ago is very telling, don't you think? Vista is more stable than 98 or ME? Did you forget the last 8+ years of XP?

The main and at least in my opinion, only two reasons to use any OS, is the software that you can buy for it, and it's stable. Are you really going to argue that the Mac OS or XP is dysfunctional in some way compared to Vista? Add to that reasoning that developers are ignoring Vista and the answer is clear. Vista is a failure for Windows.

Why else do you think they are promising Windows 7 in three years? If they thought Vista was such a hot product they would wait 8 years like they did after XP came out. In the meantime Apple smells blood and is capitalizing.

[jmannewsie5]

polaris20

the fact that you would even consider comparing Vista to an OS from ten year ago is very telling, don't you think? Vista is more stable than 98 or ME? Did you forget the last 8+ years of XP?

The main and at least in my opinion, only two reasons to use any OS, is the software that you can buy for it, and it's stable. Are you really going to argue that the Mac OS or XP is dysfunctional in some way compared to Vista? Add to that reasoning that developers are ignoring Vista and the answer is clear. Vista is a failure for Windows.

Why else do you think they are promising Windows 7 in three years? If they thought Vista was such a hot product they would wait 8 years like they did after XP came out. In the meantime Apple smells blood and is capitalizing.

[Perry_Clease]

"because one does not exist"

Are you saying that none of us here exist, that this is all dream? Dude! You must be smoking some powerful stuff

[jonahemery]

Vista haters are retarded. I remember when XP first came out. It would shut down for no reason at all, the interface looked to be designed by Fisher Price, and you would get adware just by being connected to the Net. XP actually drove met to the Mac until Vista came out.

If your machine has the specs, and your not an idiot, Vista is wonderful. Big deal you can't plug in a 5 year old printer.

[Renegade Knight]

It's a cheezy trick.
I like the Vista Interface. It does seem more stable than XP. However key things don't work that do work in XP. That's after SP1. Vista, Mojave, or 7 they need to do the job. In my case that means sync for windows mobile needs to be robust and work as well as it always did for me under XP. I've hit a point where I'll be downgrading if I can't get sync to work.

[anythingbutmicrosoft]

I support health care IT systems and Vista is a No-Go for many reasons. 1) Many systems running nuclear cameras, MRIs, ultrasounds, etc. are NOT qualified/certified to be connected to a local network never mind the Internet. To use Vista I would have to hire a full time tech to call Microsoft 100's of times a year to keep re-activating each PC? 2) I would have to deal with Vista determining if the MRI movies being reviewed by a radiologist are pirated and if the OS is going to decide to degrade the playback? I think not. 3) I build out a gigabit network to handle a heavy load but the Vista bug slows network speed by up to 90%? Hello MS, is this going to be fixed ever? I have to stop here due to lack of enough time. Also there isn't enough space to list the worst of them all where any one is a show stopper on its own. I do declare, Vista is a flop.

[62Sparkplug]

Hold off on all those VISTA purchases, Windows 7 is just around the corner (really), and it will be much, much better than VISTA (faster, bigger, more features, cheaper, more colorful, more secure, and it will even include a deed to some very valuable land in Florida!).

Monkey Boy
"BS Artist, par excellence"

[vader81551]

I really don't understand why so many people hate Vista. my computer has run better with vista than i feel it did with even XP. As long as you're not an idiot and try to run it with a 10 year old computer, it runs great. Plus, vista takes more advantage of newer systems that people need to be using to run today's latest software anyway. and i can't wait till MS releases betas for windows 7.

[AlbooMED]

@anythingbutmicrosoft

Everything you just said is completely false and I would take the time to show you why, but why bother, go and do it yourself if you're looking for the truth.

Oh, and if you support healthcare IT then I truly feel sorry for that hospital/clicnic/medical center. You have no idea what the hell you're talking about.

[Dalkorian]

HAHAHAHAHA! Riiiight. We've all heard this before .... it's right on track ... it's better, stronger, faster ... it'll make you feel like more of a man (or woman when appropriate:)) ... it cures cancer ... it's perfectly secure ... it'll have a new filesystem ... it's - delayed. Again. If I remember correctly, fista gave us all these promises too, and more. Yet look what a disappointing little snot nosed brat it turned out to be. M$ actually has to pay shills like jonahemery, polaris20, RDO CA and smokified to convince the idiotic sheep that they're too stupid to understand fista and the sheep should just shut up, stop thinking and hand over their money to M$ in order to be enslaved by the crappiest OS ever to be devised by mankind. OK, maybe that's a little harsh - ME was a blatant attempt to rip off the public, fista is just a disaster. It'll be loved by masochists and fanbois, but everyone else will soon wake up and realize there are BETTER options out there. Options that work, don't enslave you and have FAR FEWER security risks overall. Some of those options will even run on the same identical hardware that you formerly had winblows on - except it will now run faster and will be infinitely more stable. On the exact same hardware.