Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system is expected to offer enhanced search and simplified home networking features, writes JOHN COLLINS

THE SUCCESSOR to Microsoft’s much-maligned Windows Vista operating system took a major step closer to a commercial release yesterday with a “release candidate” of Windows 7 being made available on the web.

The release candidate, which has all the features of the proposed final version, is currently only available for subscribers to Microsoft’s MSDN and TechNet programmes for technology professionals. From next Tuesday, May 5th, anyone will be able to download it from www.microsoft.com/windows7.

Unlike Vista, Microsoft is limiting the amount of information it shares with customers and the media in advance of Windows 7 and still won’t be drawn on a release date for the finished product.

Quite often a release candidate can differ significantly from the final version but Mike Nash, the Microsoft corporate vice-president with responsibility for Windows, said this was not the case this time. Late changes to Vista were at least partly responsible for issues such as an initial failure to work with Apple iPods. Software compatibility has also been addressed.

“Vista applications run well on Windows 7,” said Nash. “There’s not a ton of magic to make XP apps that didn’t run on Vista, run on Windows 7. We asked people to treat the beta as a release candidate (RC) and the RC as final,” said Nash.

He said it was too soon to know when Windows 7 would go on sale as this would depend on feedback from customers.

Microsoft will entice consumers to upgrade with enhanced search, a refined user interface and simplified home networking. Business versions will also have a feature called Bitlocker to Go, which will encrypt USB keys so that they cannot be read if lost or stolen. The operating system will also tightly integrate with Microsoft’s new suite of web services – Windows Live Essentials.

Nash said the design of Windows 7 reflected the fact that PCs are increasingly being used as mobile machines. In particular, enhancements have been made to ensure notebooks will enter sleep mode and resume more quickly than with its predecessor, while battery life will be extended with Windows 7.

“Windows is one of the few products that is used in both the business and consumer spaces,” said Nash. “Windows 7 provides IT with the ability to give end users flexibility and choice but allows IT professionals the control and reliability they need to deliver services.”

While Microsoft is hoping Windows 7 will provide a needed boost for sales, at least one technology analyst has questioned whether it will have any impact.

"I definitely wouldn't believe Windows 7 will have any impact on the market," Eszter Morvay, a research manager with IDC told The Irish Times. "We saw with Vista that a new operating system doesn't have an uplifting effect on PC sales and after Vista people will be cautious."

Morvay said that consumers will have no choice – once Windows 7 becomes available it will ship on new PCs. Businesses will take longer to assess the new version and Morvay does not believe they will bring forward the purchase of new systems just to avail of it.