We heard today that Windows 7, the next major version of Windows following Vista, is on track to be released in January 2010, and is going “very, very well”. These are the words of Windows unit head, Bill Veghte after a meeting on Thursday with Microsoft financial analysts.

So far, we have seen new multi-touch software built in to Windows 7 to offer a new way of interacting with your computer, although not much else has been revealed as of yet. At the end of the meeting, a Q&A session was held and Steve Ballmer was asked on how Windows 7 would look like, but he refused to comment, explaining that it would be a “no-win” result for Microsoft.

I will be interested in the development of Windows 7, as Vista was such a disappointment to me. Even now as I moved to OS X, I have kept a virtual Windows Vista installation just for programs that I might need that are not available. I must admit, Vista is much improved from early 2007, but OS X has become my primary operating system. For me, it just makes more sense that Windows. There are interesting stats regarding enterprise penetration by Windows Vista.

The report showed that Vista use among businesses had increased by more than 40 per cent since January, but that most of the installations were replacing versions of Windows that predate Windows XP.

According to Forrester, 87.1 per cent of the companies surveyed for the report continue to use XP.

Microsoft is still very much reeling from Vista, so we can expect a fair amount of criticism of Windows 7 as more and more info is released, but this is Microsofts chance to get it’s act back together and make a better Operating System.