Digital Trends

Microsoft has announced it will offer the first look under the hood of its forthcoming Windows 7 operating system at two conferences in October.

In a posting to its brand-new Engineering Windows 7 Blog, Windows engineering lead Steve Sinofsky revealed that Microsoft plans to offer the first peeks under the hood of its forthcoming Windows 7 operating system at two conferences beginning this October, starting with the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) on October 27 and the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) the next week.

Although Sinofsky has admitted that Microsoft has been more tight-lipped about what's coming in Windows 7 than many industry-watchers would like, he has revealed that Windows 7 would use the kernel and driver models introduced with Windows Vista, and that Microsoft is targeting a January 2010 ship date—a date which must already have OEMs shaking their heads, since it would mean (again) missing the end-of-year consumer buying season, much as they did with Windows Vista's launch in 2007. However, Microsoft is apparently already working with OEMs on outlining hardware requirements and expectations for the new operating system.

Windows 7 will also include support for multi-touch interfaces.

Sinofsky promises more communication about Windows 7 going forward, noting in the blog, "We strongly believe that success for Windows 7 includes an open and honest, and two-way, discussion about how we balance all of these interests and deliver software on the scale of Windows."