MICROSOFT RECENTLY dropped two strong hints that the next version of its Windows operating system will arrive in 2009, up to a year sooner than anticipated.
The hints might signal Mi¬crosofr's intention to cut its losses with Windows Vista, which customers, especially large companies, have grudg¬ingly accepted or shunned.

The company has long said that it wants to release Win¬dows 7 about three years afrer Vista, and most outsid¬ers had pegged 2010 as a like-. ly arrival year for the new OS. But recently in Miami, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates reportedly said in response to a question about Vista, "Sometime in the next year or so we'll have a new version."

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And in announcing plans to extend the availability of Windows XP Home for low-cost laptops, Microsofr said it would retire the OS only afrer June 30, 2010, or one year afrer the release of Windows 7, whichever came later.

The announcement's word¬ing implies that the company may be targeting the middle of next year as a release milestone for Windows 7. Microsofr has divulged few of the changes planned for the new operating system.