When will Windows “7″ Be Released?

According to two Microsoft executives, Chris Flores, a director with the Windows Client communications team, and Steve Sinofsky, the senior vice president who heads Windows development, both pegged the release of the Vista follow-on as early 2010.

“We’re happy to report that we’re still on track to ship approximately three years after the general availability of Windows Vista,” said Flores in an entry on a company blog.

“[We] will continue to say that the next release of Windows, Windows 7, is about three years after the general availability of Windows Vista,” Sinofsky told News.com that same morning.

Tuesday night, however, another company executive — the one who heads the org chart, in fact — said different. At The Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital conference, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO, put Windows 7’s ship date as “late 2009.”

The spread between early 2010, which would be the “three years after the general availability of Vista” — that operating system went into general distribution at the end of January 2007 — and “late 2009″ may not sound significant, but only a few months separated Vista’s actual release from an earlier date that would have meant the operating system made it into computers in time for those PCs to sell during the 2006 holiday season.

What will Windows 7 be like?

Under the hood Windows “7″ will be a lot like Windows Vista, according to the details Microsoft let out on May 27, 2008.

Chris Flores was almost expansive on the subject, and noted that Windows 7 would “carry forward” the “long-term architectural investments” made in Vista. “Windows Vista established a very solid foundation, particularly on subsystems such as graphics, audio, and storage. Windows Server 2008 was built on that foundation and Windows 7 will be as well,” he said.

Will Windows “7″ Be Shipping in 32-bit or 64-bit?

Yes, Windows “7″ will ship in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors and will run on the same hardware designed for Windows Vista.

What specific features are planned to ship in Windows 7?

A little, but only that. Microsoft demonstrated a touch-screen feature that the company said would be integrated into Windows 7.

Is Windows 7 the final name?

No. Like Vienna, Windows 7 is just a codename and will likely change prior to the Operating System’s official release.

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