At the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference on Thursday, Microsoft provided the clearest public indication yet that it is planning on completing Windows 7 in time to run on PCs that ship for next year's Christmas-buying season.
In a presentation, Microsoft director Doug Howe showed a slide stating that the Vista Velocity programme would continue through next spring as Microsoft works to improve Vista machines that ship in next year's back-to-school time frame. He went on to say that Microsoft would continue the Velocity effort with Windows 7.
The slides and Howe's presentation appeared to confirm what has been widely postulated, but left unconfirmed by Microsoft: that Windows 7 is intended to ship around the middle of the year, in time to be on machines that ship for the 2009 Christmas-buying season.
After the session, Howe essentially confirmed that Microsoft is aiming to release Windows 7 for the holidays. "Definitely the holiday focus is going to be on 7," Howe told ZDNet UK sister site CNET News.com.
Microsoft has tried not to publicly commit to shipping Windows 7 on next year's PCs. While partners have been told privately when to expect Windows 7, the company is trying to avoid the public-relations damage that would come with missing another deadline. Officially, Windows 7 will ship within three years of the January 2007 consumer release of Windows Vista. However, the company has said that it will ship a beta version early next year and has also hinted that only one release candidate is planned.
The WinHEC session also shed a little more light on the Velocity programme itself. Initially open only to selected computer makers, Microsoft is trying to open up the programme to other hardware and software makers, although the company still has yet to publicly state what its criteria are or how it will promote the computers that pass its testing.
Microsoft did not offer a list of criteria at the session, although Howe confirmed that one of the current benchmarks is having a system that boots up and is ready to run within 50 seconds. Many machines that have gone through the Velocity testing can boot up faster, he said, but, because there are so many factors that can influence boot times, Microsoft wanted to set a goal that was broadly achievable.
The programme focuses on improving start-up and shut-down times, as well as tasks like going to sleep and waking. Other criteria include making sure that systems ship with stable drivers and software that has been proved to be Vista-compatible.
Microsoft started Velocity in July 2007 as a three-month programme to investigate the main causes of sluggish system performance. The company subsequently realised a broader effort was needed and kept the programme going to assist computer makers in creating "best-in-class" machines.
The specific testing itself is done at Microsoft's labs in Redmond, Washington, Howe said.
