More Guesses of Windows 7 Releasing in October

Now that we know that Windows 7 will be hitting us sometime this year in final form, now all the questions are aimed at narrowing down the date.

We heard from Acer executives that Windows 7 will be out on October 23, which sounds plausible, but there’s no other evidence to back it up. Today we have a couple other new entries in the guessing game.

Gathering statements made by Microsoft employees and charting it on a calendar, ComputerWorld figures that Windows 7 will hit RTM (release to manufacturing) on August 11. The magazine believes that if Microsoft follows the same schedule it set for Windows XP, the new OS should be out on October 11.

The next guess comes from long-time Windows journalist Paul Thurrott, who wrote in the final part of his Windows 7 RC review, “Microsoft also says it will finalize Windows 7 in mid-August and deliver it to the public in time for the 2009 holiday season. I can tell you, however, that the general availability date is a lot more specific than that: You'll be able to get the final version of Windows 7 publicly on October 15, 2009, according to the current schedule.”

While we don’t have any hard dates yet, and we won’t until Microsoft is ready to tell, it looks like everyone is betting on making it out well before Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year in the U.S.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
  • deltatux
    what's with these hype surrounding Windows 7, it's not like a saviour or something to really hype about. It's really a minor update to Windows Vista.
    Reply
  • PC_GI
    I hope its the new XP... I am just glad it uses less RAM and looks like vista.
    Reply
  • tipmen
    Microsoft needs the image thats all and they are doing very well at it. look what image does for apple. Basically mircosoft wants everyone loving there new creation so the Avg. joe buys because his friend says its great works everytime.
    Reply
  • the_one111
    deltatuxwhat's with these hype surrounding Windows 7, it's not like a saviour or something to really hype about. It's really a minor update to Windows Vista.Run, before we burn you on a stake.
    Reply
  • Tindytim
    the_one111Run, before we burn you on a stake.I wish that was a joke, but it isn't.

    The people that judge 7 as Vista usually have a small usage time or only see video. Yes, most of the menus are the same, and the UI hasn't been changed hugely. The difference between Vista and 7 and similar to the difference between 2k and XP (Vista to 7 is NT 6 to NT 6.1, and 2k to XP is NT 5 to NT 5.1). The UI is extremely similar (Although XP used a new theme), and most of the improvements are in the background and in features average joe may not use or notice (VHD support gave me wet dreams).
    Reply
  • enforcer22
    Well i have been using vitsa 64 for about 2 years now. And i loaded win 7 up on a new drive.. Honestly i dont really see any real difference. Aside how IMO they raped the taskbar, Made some changes to how a few things work which so far is questionable if its going to work better for me. It runs so far like vista runs for me. Looks pretty much the same in most ways and gives me 0 problems like vista does. It doesnt run any faster for me it doesnt do anything special that i have seen yet. Would i buy it? Sure i paid for vista ultimate 64 ill get windows 7 ultimate. If nothing else so i can use the "new?" fetures of win 7 or to at least be up to date Maybe the RTM will be better who knows but hell i used XP RC 1 and 2 and when the RTM came out the only thing i noticed that changed was there was no RC 4734 whatever the number was at the bottom right.

    All in all i would say win7 is a great OS just like vista and xp have been for me. Still no issues.
    Reply
  • christop
    I can tell boot times are better than vista.. The whole os is better all around.. So far no issues for me with 7.. I am ready for the real release so I can get ride of vista for good...
    Reply
  • PC_GI
    I hated Vista when it was first released, I had just bought a computer with a 915GM Chip set. It rendered it useless for Vista... But After I got a newer computer with a newer Chip set and ran at around 4gb or ram I had ZERO problems with Vista other then the annoying reluctance of trying to do anything and always having that damn message pop up and say "are you sure you want to do this" I mean shit, I clicked it didn't I !? Thank god that on 7 you can control that annoying useless feature. I will buy it just for that!!!
    Reply
  • eklipz330
    christopI can tell boot times are better than vista.. The whole os is better all around.. So far no issues for me with 7.. I am ready for the real release so I can get ride of vista for good...

    boot times are better than vista? hell I GOT BETTER BOOT TIMES THAN XP X64!
    Reply
  • afrobacon
    these Vista vs 7 arguments are getting old...

    I can't wait for the offical release... which is why I'm running Build 7100
    Reply