Windows 7: the Official Name of Windows 7

Drum roll... Microsoft has announced that the official name of Windows 7 would be... get ready... Windows 7. The Redmond giant is moving away from its traditional development process where the Windows client is built under a codename, and then labeled with the general release label. With Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, taking over the Windows project, codenames were scrapped for product numbers, and now it’s official, the product number has become the actual name for the next iteration of the Windows client: Windows 7.

“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',” revealed Mike Nash, Corporate Vice President, Windows Product Management.

It is important to understand how Microsoft is actually counting Windows releases in order to make Windows 7, well the seventh iteration of the client. The trick here is to ignore the actual consumer versions of the operating system. If you start the count from Windows 1, you will go over 7 in no time. However, that's not how the Redmond company is counting. Instead, Microsoft is only taking into consideration the NT family releases. And in this context, there are Windows NT 3.1, 3.5, 4.0, 2000, XP, Vista and now Windows 7.

“The decision to use the name Windows 7 is about simplicity,” Nash argued. Essentially, since Windows 7 is the seventh Windows release of the Windows NT family, the Windows 7 name makes all the sense in the world. But in this respect, those that expected Windows 7 to be nothing more than a codename and Microsoft to introduce another brand/label in addition to Windows will undoubtedly be disappointed.

“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,” Nash added.  “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.”