In a recent interview, as he attended the 2008 international Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, at the beginning of January, Microsoft Charmain Bill Gates suggested that Windows Vista could have been polished more before being unleashed on consumers. Of course that Gates failed to mention Vista specifically, he simply postponed the delivery of an answer until after the next version of Windows will be released. With Windows 7 M1 having shipped to Microsoft key partners, and details leaked on the Internet from screenshots, to new features and to video demonstrations, the Redmond company tacitly admitted that it is building the next version of the Windows platform.

Tacitly, because there is no official confirmation. But there are bits and pieces that, put together, form a larger picture. Tim Sneath, Microsoft group manager for client platforms, for example, is looking for a Windows 7 evangelist to join his team. And Eric Traut, Microsoft Distinguished Engineer, is leading the Windows 7 kernel project, and hammering away at the current Windows core, in order to strip it down of all possible dependencies. Other than this, Microsoft ignores Windows 7 almost entirely.

But as Windows Vista could have done with a tad more polishing, and Vista SP1 will have the task of softening all of the rough edges of the latest Windows client, the fact of the matter is that some problems will only be dealt with in Windows 7. In this context, James Senior, Microsoft U.K. Partner Technical Specialist, has revealed that the Redmond company is not looking to repeat Vista's mishaps in terms of the Back and Restore features with Windows 7.

"I received a large number of comments with people talking about their backup error messages and whilst some people got their problems fixed - others did not. For anyone who has been experiencing problems with Backup and Restore in Windows Vista - I apologise - it's not good enough. The reason I've been waiting to write this is because I've been trying to find the right group to help. What about going forward? Well all I can say is that I've been beating the drum about this and quite frankly being a pain for the Windows 7 Backup team and they assure me that the feedback is being heard loud and clear," Senior stated.