Windows 7 should be out for Christmas

A webcast on the new operating system today the company confirmed that Windows 7 will be released to manufacturers (RTM) three years after the RTM version of Vista was released. Vista was RTM in October 2006.

“The goal for Windows 7 RTM is to be 3 years after Windows Vista RTM date,” said the company in response to a question.

The webcast, hosted by Microsoft technical fellow Mark Russinovich, went over some of the new features of the forthcoming operating system. These include much better power management, a reduced processor footprint and better applications control.

“We spent a ton of time on battery time,” said Russinovich.

He continued that the company had reduced the power footprint of over 400 parts of the operating system and was still making more improvements. These included managing power but still ensuring speedy performance.

“Performance was a huge problem with Vista,” said Mark Manasse, principle researcher at Microsoft Research.

“But I am pleased, and quite surprised to say, that I was pleasantly surprised at performance. I’ve run it on bespoke and virtual systems and am very impressed by the way it runs.”

The new operating system will also have a Power Configuration function, which scans the machine in a minute and then list recommendations for cutting power output.

Overall Microsoft has spent a lot of time trying to avoid the compatibility problems that dogged people moving from XP to Vista.

“When we sat down in one of the open meetings at the start of the project we came up with certain goals,” said Erik Lustig, a senior product manager responsible for Windows Fundamentals

“If it worked with Vista it should work with Windows 7 and if it runs Vista it should run 7 faster.”