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It’s official: Windows 7 is … Windows 7

Oct. 13, 2008 Paul Thurrott | Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows

Yep, they did as I expected: Microsoft will officially name Windows 7 as ... Windows 7:

Hi there, Mike Nash here.

For me, one of the most exciting times in the release of a new product is right before we show it to the world for the first time. And that time is right now.

In a few weeks we are going to be talking about the details of this release at the PDC and at WinHEC. We will be sharing a pre-beta "developer only release" with attendees of both shows and giving them the first broad in-depth look at what we've been up to. I can't wait for them to see it.

And, as you probably know, since we began development of the next version of the Windows client operating system we have been referring to it by a codename, "Windows 7."  But now is a good time to announce that we've decided to officially call the next version of Windows, "Windows 7."

While I know there have been a few cases at Microsoft when the codename of a product was used for the final release, I am pretty sure that this is a first for Windows. You might wonder about the decision.

The decision to use the name Windows 7 is about simplicity. Over the years, we have taken different approaches to naming Windows.  We've used version numbers like Windows 3.11, or dates like Windows 98, or "aspirational" monikers like Windows XP or Windows Vista.  And since we do not ship new versions of Windows every year, using a date did not make sense.  Likewise, coming up with an all-new "aspirational" name does not do justice to what we are trying to achieve, which is to stay firmly rooted in our aspirations for Windows Vista, while evolving and refining the substantial investments in platform technology in Windows Vista into the next generation of Windows.

Simply put, this is the seventh release of Windows, so therefore "Windows 7" just makes sense.

We are very excited about the opportunity to tell you more about Windows 7 in the coming weeks, and show you how we have continued to build on investments begun in Windows Vista to deliver on the next release of the Windows operating system.

I look forward to sharing more with you in the coming weeks and months.

--Mike

Discuss this Article 60

bettieblu
on Oct 13, 2008
Smart move. Vista was a horrible name. I have always liked the numbers, XP, ME was bad as well, but not as bad as Vista.
CompactDstrxion
on Oct 13, 2008
Windows 7 is actually my favourite Windows name and has the potential to be an excellent brand. Now will they go and spoil it with 'Windows 7 Home Basic N 64-bit edition' and similar?
adamb1000
on Oct 13, 2008
Good name. It also gives the impression that it's a big release.
kellymjones
on Oct 13, 2008
Not that I hated the Vista name, but Windows 7 is a simple and strong name.
gorath
on Oct 13, 2008
XP was an aspirational name? huh? I keep forgetting how little "marketting speak" makes sense. Did they give up on date-based naming when they released a version of windows in 1998, 1999, two in 2000, and 2001? Maybe they realised that having two windows 2000s would be confusing? or 3 versions of vista? oh, wait.
BrightrevCarl
on Oct 13, 2008
This is good. Vista's name is mud (justified or not) and Windows 7 is a nice, simple substitute with strong branding possibilities.
drylight
on Oct 13, 2008
Windows is not a strong name. It's a tarnished brand, ridiculed and a joke.
boolean22
on Oct 13, 2008
There's an even higher logic here. The launch of Windows Seven will be in tandem with Windows Mobile Seven, an evolution of the platform as a whole. Since the beginning, I tought they would keep it... It totally surpasses any other scheme used before. As said above, I REALLY hope they won't spoil it with several SKUs that don't add up to clarifying more than they do complicate things. Keep it Home, Server, Business. Ultimate it's certainly out of focus already. Make it an opt-in, like a membership, and everyone's happy. (Windows Plus! somebody?)
Cfischer83
on Oct 13, 2008
I always liked the name Vista. Something about giving your product a sweet sounding name always made it nice to say. I love to say "In Vista you can do this" or "in Vista you can do that"... I don't know if it will be as cool to say "in Windows 7 you can..." From a marketing standpoint it might work though. 7 sounds strong. Everyone knows Windows. So Windows 7 gives a nice first impression.
rjohn05
on Oct 13, 2008
I like this decision. I was hoping they would keep the name because at least in my mind Windows 7 already had a lot of positives going for it already.
rseiler
on Oct 13, 2008
This is MS once and for all admitting that Vista is a failure (not counting the copies that are force-fed to people by OEMs, which are most of the copies by far). If Vista had been a success, they'd have continued the name. Vista 2.0, or whatever.
xtreem0
on Oct 13, 2008
@rseiler Vista 2.0? your kidding me. They would have probably chosen another name anyways if vista was a sucess. Failer or not i dont think they would ever give a product the same name as the one before and slap a lame ass 2.0 to it. (not to say they have not to other products though...)
daveinla
on Oct 13, 2008
Well I guess Vista will be remembered as the 2nd to least popular Windows of all time (after Me of course)... Welcome Windows7 !
anonymous
on Oct 13, 2008
tayme
on Oct 13, 2008
So, I wonder what the actual version number will be? Mike;s guess was 6.2.6300. Could MS be artificially increasing the version number for marketing purposes or was Mike W R O N G? http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2008/10/09/78927.as... - "I'm guessing (and it's just a guess) that it will be something like Windows 2010 and that it will have a version of something like 6.2.6300" --tayme
FlyerMike
on Oct 13, 2008
But isn't Windows 7 really 6.1? It is really just a Vista "Second Edition" isn't it? All of the screen shots look identical to Vista. I can't imagine it getting a major overhaul between now and when it is released.
drylight
on Oct 13, 2008
Windows 7 is /not/ a codename. If they truly think it is, then they are so lame at picking cool code names. Windows Mobile 7 is the version which copies iPhone OS. Plain and simple. Took Microsoft 6 versions to get it wrong. Pathetic.
drylight
on Oct 13, 2008
Microsoft fanboys, bloggers and shills are so pathetically sad (as are MSFT themselves) http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10064580-75.html
dmccall
on Oct 13, 2008
Hello!?? "Vista" means "view", like the great expanse when you look out a good _window_. I don't like "7" because it sounds exactly 3 steps behind OS X.
Veng_01
on Oct 13, 2008
George Constanza won't be happy...
mikegalos@msn.com
on Oct 13, 2008
tayme Wow. My guess (called out as a guess) was wrong. Funny, though, that the only people who seem to care about things like naming are the ones who will be setting their alarms to make sure they don't miss a minute of tommorrow's Steve Show while those of us who actually use Windows consider this a non-event (like tomorrow's Steve Show) Now, Silverlight 2 shipping. That's news I actually care about.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Oct 13, 2008
drylight The article on the Apple Tax has some great points like "You've also got an upgrade tax. The only machine, as far as I know, within the Apple lineup that's actually upgradeable is the Mac Pro, the $2,800 version, which is [more expensive than] just about any PC configuration that you get from any one of our manufacturers." Thanks for sharing it.
joe-dokes
on Oct 13, 2008
Personally I can't wait until Mac OS X finally runs out of point releases and has to move to 11. When that happens they can hire the guitarist Derek Smalls from Spinal Tap and have him say, "This one goes to Eleven." As for Windows naming, I have a good friend who works for MS and he absolutely loathed the naming when NT moved from NT 4 to Windows 2000. For me personally I always thought that numbering was the simplest way to keep track of the latest version. Even with Mac os X I can never keep track of the cat names, Leopard, puma, tiger, etc. This may be good sign for MS, it may mark the beginning of a simplification of its products, by starting with the name. Regards Joe Dokes
mikegalos@msn.com
on Oct 13, 2008
Nah. The real Apple naming crisis will come long before the replacement for OS X 10.9... The real crisis will come early next year when Apple has to come up with the 3rd generation iPhone and realizes that iPhone 3G is already taken and iPhone 3G 2G is just bizarre.
scoobyclub
on Oct 13, 2008
Why don't they call it Windows VII. That would be cool and only three major releases until they get to X :-)
alex1350
on Oct 13, 2008
Why are people making fun of the name "Windows 7" on CNET and such? They never complained about the name before. Why now? Man, if they seriously don't like windows so much, why are they still using it? Man, all there doing is bashing MS and waiting for there god Jobs tomorrow.
PatriotB6007
on Oct 13, 2008
I don't mind marketing with a number -- in fact I was hoping that Vista would have been simply named Windows 6.0. The thing is, it's gotta be the real version number of the OS. Windows "7" is Windows 6.1. Period. It's not gonna miraculously change to 7.0. There's going to be a lot of confusion when people see "Windows 6.1" or "Version 6.1" showing up in about boxes, sysinfo utilities, logfiles, useragent strings, updates downloaded from MS download center, etc. And worse when the "real" Windows 7.0 comes out. They'll probably end up pulling a Java -- Java stayed in the 1.x's until they went from 1.5 to 6.0. Sun did something similar with Solaris -- 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 7. I can picture Windows staying in the 6.x's for numerous releases and then jumping up at some point in the future.
gorath
on Oct 13, 2008
I love drylight's "windows 7 is /not/ a codename" I beg to differ........ lol
dovella
on Oct 13, 2008
Wellcome Windows 7 !! Nice !!! PS . @ troll Pls resolved this http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8125056#8125056
gorath
on Oct 13, 2008
@patriot As far as i'm aware, even the "milestone 1" build is numbered 6.1 something. There's still two years before the release, so I don't think it's entirely impossible for the version number to reach 7. However, there may be good reasons to keep the major build number at 6 regardless, and some of these have been discussed on their engineering windows 7 blog, namely that badly written apps will check for a specific version number, rather than check for greater than or equal to version numbers.
lotsamystuff
on Oct 14, 2008
Exciting!
subzerohitman721
on Oct 14, 2008
Seven is my favorite number. Perhaps keeing it simple will resonate more so with people. However, their logic in justifying 7 was explained by Ed Bott in his article about it. Because the family tree of this code base is the NT codebase, not the 9x lineage. So throwing out the 9x versions, it literally would be the 7th version of the NT line. I know, corny but thats the explanation. Hate it or love it, a lot of people are intriegued by Windows Seven. We will be keeping an eye on this one.
dovella
on Oct 14, 2008
7 in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven
gorath
on Oct 14, 2008
Subzero, the NT7 moniker is fairly widely understood. However, the discrepancy is whether or not it will actually BE an NT7 version in truth, or if it will be NT6.something. I'd imagine that it will be NT7, but whether that's done artificially (ie. it will still be the 6.x kernel with an UI overhaul) or not remains to be seen. They have already stated that the majority of the underpinnings will be compatible fully with Vista, so there will be no need for driver re-writes. Whatever the case, it does look set to be a worthy update, and in my mind is worthy of a new full release number, whether or not it actually uses a new kernel.
tayme
on Oct 14, 2008
@Mike - Yes, your guess was wrong. So much for you doing all of the research that you claim that makes you always right. Regarding caring, you sure seemed to care last week when it was being discussed. Go back and read your own words on the link I posted last night. Actually, what you really seemed to care about was Apple's naming/numbering convention. You seem obsessed with Apple and every move that they make. --tayme
subzerohitman721
on Oct 14, 2008
Gorath, I agree 100 percent. We'll have to see when the beta is out. If its an improvement in the same mannor of 98 was to 95 or XP was to 2000, then it would be worthy. However, I know a few people were scratching their heads as to how in the heck do they come up with Seven? I know some of the people who blog on here know their stuff. I'm sure we have some readers who don't blog that might not understand the reason. I tend to refer people here and to other sites.
gorath
on Oct 14, 2008
fairy muff :D
RunTimeError
on Oct 14, 2008
Very nice. Simple. To the point. Good stuff MS :)
mikegalos@msn.com
on Oct 14, 2008
tayme That's why it was a guess and labled as one (not spoken as fact from on high as some people's guesses are presented). Now keeping track of all my old posts, that's obsessed (and a bit creepy)
tayme
on Oct 14, 2008
@Mike - You sound just like a politician... Yeah, I guess I'm your cyber-stalker there, Mikey...actually, I am not keeping track...I just remember you making that "guess" and ranting about other companies artificially increasing a version number. What is your "guess" now? Will MS follow suit and do the same or will the version number remain as 6.x.yyyy? --tayme
gorath
on Oct 14, 2008
what exactly are the prerequisites for changing major product number anyway?
mikegalos@msn.com
on Oct 14, 2008
tayme If you go back to everyone else who made guesses in that discussion while you were there and flamed them (especially those who didn't label their guesses as such), I'd believe you. But, you didn't. Which leaves it, again, a bit obsessive and creepy.
lotsamystuff
on Oct 14, 2008
"keeping track of all my old posts, that's obsessed (and a bit creepy)." So now it's obsessive and creepy to hold someone responsible for their opinions? Wow. Nice argumentative technique there, "mikegalos".
tayme
on Oct 14, 2008
@Mike - Again...you are wrong. I did go back and look. I only posted one time in that thread. It was in response to somebody else that was arguing with your biased logic. My comment was that that person was probably correct, that Apple used X(10) in much the same way the Sun uses the sub-version in the product name of the Solaris OS. "lotsa" is correct and your debating style is very flawed. You refuse to be held accountable for your statements and put twists and turns throughout, in an attempt to confuse the issue. --tayme
mikegalos@msn.com
on Oct 14, 2008
lotsa No. It's obsessive and creepy when you keep track of one person's guess in a discussion over a week old. As a test, can you tell me what Waethorn's guess was without looking? How about daveinla's? What about johnbaxter's or benjwah's or richardfrisch's or master3's?
tayme
on Oct 14, 2008
Wow, Mike...its obsessive and creepy that you remembered all of those names without looking. I think its obvious that I did not "keep track" of your guess...I just remembered you ranting and went back to look because you are obsessive about being uber positive about MS and uber negative about any other OS provider. --tayme
lotsamystuff
on Oct 14, 2008
@mikegalos: Just keep digging that hole. I don't care about those particular opinions, per se, so please quit changing the subject. As a point of curiosity, what exactly *is* your "sell by" date on opinions? A week? Three days? Two? Should Paul delete his archives when his writings and opinions get stale and lose their shelf appeal? One of the things I admire about Paul is his willingness to take a stand and have an opinion, even when he's dead-on wrong (like the time he gave effusive praise and four Paul-heads to Windows '95). He may be wrong, but he doesn't criticize others when they point it out; he rightly turns it back on them and says, "Hey, jackass--when did YOU last have an opinion?" You make yourself a target because of *your* obsessive commenting, your arrogance and your dismissive attitude towards those with whom you disagree. As do I. And I got over it. As should you.
gorath
on Oct 14, 2008
Mike, you really do come across as a ranting fanboy a-hole most of the time (as do some others here) I think you need to learn to chill.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Oct 14, 2008
tayme I followed your link to see who posted.
Delmont
on Oct 14, 2008
See what you Mac guys don't like is Mike uses logic and facts for his statements. Whereas you Mac people use pure emotion.

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