Microsoft's OEM Division Corporate Vice President Steve Guggenheimer during a keynote address at Computex 2009 in Taipei revealed that the company is confident with the progress made with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, and that as a result, Microsoft will deliver Release to Manufacturing (RTM) code to partners in the second half of July. Windows 7 will become generally available on October 22, 2009, and Windows Server 2008 R2 will be broadly available at the same time.

Windows 7, unlike Vista, should be able to run on netbooks, and AMD already has driver support for it for their GPUs.

AMD says all of its CPUs with the exception of its very low-end Sempron and Turion K8 Rev E processors will include AMD-V, the firm's hardware-based virtualisation technology needed to support XP mode.

Now, three years later, it appears to be time for the “Vista Capable” sequel. How much positive Windows 7 buzz will be wiped out in coming weeks and months when consumers and business buyers discover that a heavily hyped new Windows 7 feature, XP Mode, won’t work on some Intel-based products? The problem is caused by the Byzantine way Intel packages its CPU technology—adding, removing, and tweaking features like bus speed and cache size to hit the widest variety of price points for PC makers.

If you didn’t think the performance benefits of using Aero Glass could get any better, then see this. At PDC 2008, Anantha Kancherla presented a session on “Windows 7: Writing Your Application to Shine on Modern Graphics Hardware” where he presented a mindblowing fact about the Windows 7 Desktop Window Manager.

You've been raising some big questions in the forums about 64-bit. Here's our FAQ to 64-bit Vista vs XP, and whether it's worth the hassle if you're not a workstation user, but a gamer or power user. Which is better: 64-bit Vista or 64-bit XP?
In terms of hardware support there is no question: support for 64-bit Vista far outstrips 64-bit XP. We’re not going to argue aesthetics or interface here, but if you want to be sure of running new hardware on your 64-bit system, Vista is really your only choice. Fewer and fewer vendors are going to release drivers for 64-bit XP, and many didn’t even bother in the first place. 64-bit Vista support, however, while still lagging behind 32-bit, is gradually making its way towards universal.