Windows 7, the follow-on to Vista, is already on the agendas of the Professional Developers Conference (PDC), scheduled for Oct. 27-30, and the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), slated for Nov. 5-7, but Microsoft will likely provide early code to developers at one or both of the shows, said Michael Cherry, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft.

"When that many developers [come] together, you want them to go home with something that they can play with," said Cherry. "Microsoft will want to do more than just tell developers about Windows 7."

Of the two conferences, Cherry put his money on WinHEC as the most likely target for Microsoft. "It's a small grouping by number," he reasoned, "so I think they are more likely to get something." That smaller number, he said, might be more attractive to Microsoft, which until recently has played Windows 7 closer to its vest than previous editions.

"Microsoft might have some concerns about the early code getting reviewed," said Cherry. "They won't want anyone to do any performance testing with a beta, but once it's out it's inevitable that those of us as analysts will start writing our impressions about the early code. Analysts abhor a vacuum."

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