Skip to main content

Windows 7 For Christmas ’09?

Windows 7 For Christmas

Although it’s not being specific, Microsoft has all but confirmed that it will be shipping its eagerly-awaited new OS, Windows 7, in time for the holiday season next year.

At the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference on Thursday, while offering a presentation on the Vista Velocity program, Microsoft director Doug Howe said the company would continue the program with 7.

Recommended Videos

The presentation appeared to confirm what’s become widespread speculation – that the company would ship Windows 7 to take advantage of holiday season buying next year, something it’s rumored to have already told partners. However, it’s held off from a public declaration to avoid the kind of embarrassing delays that dogged the release of Vista.

But Howe told CNET that "definitely the holiday focus is going to be on 7."

Digital Trends Staff
Digital Trends has a simple mission: to help readers easily understand how tech affects the way they live. We are your…
You have one year to safely use Windows 10 before you’ll need to pay
Windows 11 logo on a laptop.

Microsoft will be allowing consumers to join its Extended Security Updates (ESU) program for the first time next year, and it announced the program pricing today in a blog post. The official end-of-service date for Windows 10 is October 14, 2025, but by paying $30 to join the ESU program, you can receive an extra year of security updates. This will allow you to continue safely using Windows 10 until around October 2026, a full two years from now.

By the time support for Windows 10 ends, it will be almost exactly four years since Windows 11 launched and a decade since Windows 10 launched. It takes a lot of work to keep an operating system secure and running smoothly, which is why a company like Microsoft can't just endlessly support every version of Windows it's ever shipped. It would end up costing a lot more money than it made -- and that's not how businesses function.

Read more
Microsoft is forced to halt the Windows 11 24H2 update on some PCs
The Surface Pro 11 on a white table in front of a window.

Microsoft’s recent Windows 11 24H2 update is off to a bumpy start. According to a report by Bleeping Computer, users are facing compatibility issues across various hardware and software configurations, prompting the company to temporarily block the update for some devices.

The affected systems include specific Asus laptop models and configurations involving software like Voicemeeter, Safe Exam Browser, and older versions of Easy Anti-Cheat, commonly used in gaming.

Read more
This beloved Mac-only app has finally come to Windows
iOS 16 Work Focus with a Fantastical widget and two rows of work-related apps

Highly popular (and expensive) calendar app Fantastical has launched a Windows version of its app, finally bringing it out of just the Apple ecosystem 13 years after its initial release.

The calendar has been rebuilt as a native Windows app with all of the features included on Mac, though it doesn't yet have an Arm-native version for Copilot+ PC owners.

Read more