Windows

Three product lines from the Windows and Windows Live Division are of primary interest to enterprise customers: the Windows client OS, which includes Windows 7; the Windows Server OS, which includes Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows HPC Server 2008 R2; and Internet Explorer. Customers need to track the status of these Windows products in order to plan for the deployment and maintenance of both desktops and servers and the deployment of other server products, such as SQL Server and Exchange, which have dependencies on specific Windows versions and service packs.

Windows Client OS

The Windows client is Microsoft’s primary OS for desktop, laptop, netbook, and tablet computers (collectively, “clients”). Steve Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division, reiterated at the All Things Digital Conference in May 2011 that the Windows team plans to release a new version of the Windows client OS every two to three years. Based on this guidance, a minor version release that does not change the underlying architecture of Windows might be available two years after general availability of the previous version, while a major version release, which incorporates architectural or other significant changes, might be available three years after the general availability of a previous version. (See the chart “Important Dates for Windows Client“.)