MICROSOFT HAS given the first public demonstration of Windows 7, the next major release of its ubiquitous operating system, which will replace the much maligned Vista.
The company said Windows 7 can be more easily personalised, works better with hardware devices and can interact more deeply with the web through a suite of applications called Windows Live Essentials.
"Windows applications are taking on more of the characteristics of the web," said Ray Ozzie, chief software architect with Microsoft, who described it as "Windows without walls".
The first look at Windows 7 took place at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles yesterday.
Steven Sinofsky, the executive brought in to run Windows development after the delays of Vista, said Windows 7 was a "major" release of the software which is used by approximately one billion people every day and which accounts for about one third of its $60 billion annual revenues.
Despite Mr Sinofsky's comments Windows 7 builds heavily on Vista, and Gartner analysts have been reported calling it "Vista Service Pack 2", suggesting it is simply its predecessor with the bugs ironed out.
Microsoft had "got a lot of feedback" about Vista's release, Mr Sinofsky said to laughter from the audience, including "some commercials", a thinly veiled reference to Apple's advertising campaign which has attacked Microsoft as boring.
In a demonstration yesterday during his keynote speech, Mr Sinofsky highlighted a number of new features including an improved taskbar which provides previews and "jump lists" to make common tasks easily available.
Although the on-screen interface is very similar to Vista numerous subtle tweaks have been made to it. A major bugbear of users in Vista, user account controls which asked users to confirm steps taken by the operating system, can now be turned off.
A new feature called libraries which Mr Sinofsky said "combines the power of folders and desktop search" allows similar content from multiple PCs to be accessed in a single location.
Windows 7 also enables users to interact using touch, if their PC screen supports it. At the launch of the iPhone Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said the touchscreen capabilities were protected by patents.
Mr Sinofsky declined to be drawn on any possible patent infringement and said the feature was built on technology that Microsoft had previously developed for tablet notebook PCs.
The world's largest software company says the new version of Windows would be available "three years from the general availability" of its predecessor which means it can be expected late in 2009 or early 2010.
