After the guessing games of last week, it has been officially announced that Microsoft will definitely be issuing the final release candidate for Windows 7 next month.
The Windows 7 RC will go out to MSDN and TechNet professionals on 30 April and more widely on 5 May. After that, it's almost certain that the retail version will appear in the summer, probably in July.
Shares pick up
Although Microsoft announced a 32 per cent drop in quarterly profits this week, its shares rose when it became clear that the much-anticipated operating system would get an early release.
Also, fears about backwards compatibility for older pieces of software look to have been eased after leaks suggest Windows 7 will be able to emulate Windows XP.
Virtual XP too
Experts at SuperSite for Windows say XP Mode will come as a free download for users of the Professional and Ultimate versions of Windows 7.
Reportedly, it will offer a virtual workspace running XP with Service Pack 3 inside a container that remains separate from the rest of the OS.
Your comments (4) Click to add a new comment
kevcal
April 27th 2009
4. Don't see why windows 7 can't just be made into a service pack upgrade for vista...
I've used vista (on my laptop) since it came out and have had _no_ problems with it - I think you just need modern hardware to support it.
Be a shame if support for vista disappears quickly in the wake of windows 7 release :( time will tell I guess.
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mcphooey
April 27th 2009
3. Guys stop moaning will you. I'm one of the people who downgraded back to XP after 2 months of using Vista, it just caused too many problems with work from compatibility to simply copying files taking too long (and I'm an extreem user dev'ing with hardware, embedded, drivers & software). But since the service packs and updates I have to say Vista has been better than XP for a while. Had a quick play with Windows 7 and it has even more improvements; a virtual XP machine sounds like good tool to have, maybe a bit late and not needed now though.
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aurrin
April 26th 2009
2. @greggunner
No. It was supposed to be more secure and better-designed. Unfortunately, that almost guarantees some breaks in compatibility. XP isn't 'better working', it simply has exact configuration people grew used to writing programs for. Ninety-nine percent of the time, if they'd been written like they were supposed to in the first place, they'd work on Vista and Windows 7 without a hitch. Many or most programs, in fact, do.
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greggunner
April 26th 2009
1. Wasn't Vista supposed to be the most compatible windows yet?
Now it's successor (or what it should've been) is now including a pre-made XP virtual machine...
Seems to me that if they just made something that worked correctly in the first place they'd have no need to include older, better working versions of windows with their new products to try and get people to buy them.
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