Windows 7 is the next iteration of the Windows operating system that will succeed Windows Vista. Following the availability of the latest Windows Client, Windows Vienna was the codename for the next version of Windows. Of course that, at that time, the legacy of Jim Allchin, the former Co-President, Platforms & Services Division, was still strong with the company. Things were about to change as Steven Sinofsky stepped onto the stage. Coming from leading the development of the Office system of programs, servers and services, Sinofsky implemented the same tactics he applied for the Office 2007 System with Windows Vienna.

This meant the dawn of a new strategy that got the new Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group the nickname, Steven codename Translucency Sinofsky, as well as the move from codenames to product numbers. And since Windows Vista was the sixth Windows version Microsoft had offered, Windows Vienna naturally became Windows 7. At this point in time, among the few certain things related to Windows 7, is the fact that Microsoft is hard at work building a new kernel for the operating system, dubbed MinWin, that essentially is nothing more than the current Windows kernel but stripped down to its code, free from all dependencies and capable of running as a standalone product. Over 200 engineers are hammering away at MinWin, as Windows 7 approaches its announced availability date - 2010.

Recently, there has been talk of Microsoft scraping the traditional Windows registry in favor of an alternative, in the evolution from Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3 to Windows 7. Such a scenario is simply ridiculous. Could Microsoft do it? In a heart bit. Will Microsoft do it? No. Why? Well the answer is simple. And at the same time it is connected with the reason why the Redmond company has not introduced a SINGLE security boundary in Windows Vista, despite the fact that it served the latest Windows client five years after XP.

Yes, you all heard about the User Account Control, the Mandatory Driver Signing, PatchGuard, and so on and so forth. Those are merely security mitigations. None of them is a security boundary, meaning that, with a bit of effort all of them can be easily bypassed. Microsoft failed to introduce security boundaries in Vista and will also not introduce any major architectural changes in Windows 7 due immense ecosystem of software and hardware products that rely on Windows interoperability, be it with XP, Vista or Windows 7.

And as "the registry is a system-defined database in which applications and system components store and retrieve configuration data. The data stored in the registry varies according to the version of Microsoft Windows. Applications use the registry API to retrieve, modify, or delete registry data," according to Microsoft. "The Registry contains information that Windows continually references during operation, such as profiles for each user, the applications installed on the computer and the types of documents that each can create, property sheet settings for folders and application icons, what hardware exists on the system, and the ports that are being used."

The Windows central hierarchical database known as the registry has been around in Windows 98, Windows CE, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP and now in Windows Vista. The Registry deals with information regarding not only the configuration of the operating system, but also the installed applications and hardware devices. Has the registry evolved over the years? Sure enough. Will it be thrown aside with Windows 7? No!