By Nick Farrell
26 May 2008, 1:01 PM

MICROSOFT has confirmed that Windows 7 will be with us " sometime in 2010" and appears to have released screenshots into the blogsphere. A spokesvole said the release date of the successor to Windows Vista will ultimately be decided by, "meeting the quality bar". It is not the first time Microsoft has decided something in a good pub.

Client versions of Windows 7 will ship in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavours. A server version with the original title of Windows Server 7, is also being looked at. The Vole is keeping deadly quiet about Windows 7 in case more punters decide that is probably worth waiting three years rather than buying the disappointing and lacklustre Vista.

It also seems unlikely to want to promise the world and then have the embarrassment of having to pull all the functionality because it cannot get it to work. However, screens of some of the early versions are starting to leak onto the Internet. They do not tell us much, other than it looks like Microsoft really has started to copy Apple's desktop.