If you are looking for concrete facts about the next version of Windows, wrong place sorry. Nobody knows a lot of hard facts about it yet. But an anonymous user, courtesy of Neowin, claims to have got his (or her) grubby mits on a Milestone 1 release of Windows 7. That means not beta, or even alpha. It's far from complete, major features are not in there, and is subject to change.

Being a completely unverified source it may also be total lies. But it's Windows, and whether mere speculation or hard facts, that is guaranteed to get anyone's attention, from the savvy tech user, to the investor keeping a close eye on Microsoft's shares.

So what is (supposedly) new with Windows 7? If you hate Vista, maybe because of the GUI, the changes to control panel etc, you're out of luck.

Well, what do you expect? The changes from XP to Vista were not a small move from Microsoft. They altered the way we are used to doing things, such as the sound control applet and the user settings folder. This can be a suicidal move for software developers, where the rule "if it ain't broke, why fix it?" usually applies. This is evident from the fact so many people find Vista a pain, and getting used to a new way of doing things can hurt.

By the time Windows 7 is out we will have had another 18 months to get used to Vista's UI. And in many ways, it makes more sense. A top level choice between the user folder, the physical computer, and other system critical directories IS a better way to organise your system than on XP, but clunky while you get used to it.

The other interesting point was the memory footprint. Down to about 480MB. The install of Vista in front of me is consuming 1.1GB right now, so it's a definite improvement. Microsoft are responding to customer criticism of Vista, namely that it eats ridiculous amounts of memory. By late 2009 though, it's hard to see this being an issue. 2GB of RAM is currently £35. Only the hardcore upgrade-refusniks will be running less than 2GB by then, we hope.

There is an interesting parallel between the move from 95/98 to Windows 2000/XP and the move from XP to Vista/Windows 7. Windows 2000 was a step away from the 16/32-bit model of 98, bringing driver problems, software incompatibilities and performance issues, which were ironed out by the time we got to Windows XP. Vista isnt such an architectural leap, but perhaps Windows 7 will be the real Vista SP1.

Looking at the fuss over HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, it really makes me think – outside of a small group of technological savants and hard-core enthusiasts, does anyone really understand what makes the future tick?

I hope not. How else am I going to sell my own optical disc format?

What? You haven't heard about that? That's just shameful journalism on the part of our news team. Not one of the stories has mentioned the DVD-WOW? Well, let's fix that right now. True enough, my new format can't boast the advanced specifications of those other formats, but I think it'll develop some fans. It holds roughly 6GB of data, written onto disc by a standard DVD writer's laser, and even includes the same logos and packaging, just to help people acclimatize. No upgrading required!

Why does the media cost twice as much as a store-bought DVD? It's all down to the special homeopathic droplet of distilled 'awesome' that goes into every disc at some point during manufacture, making it roughly 15% less susceptible to damage or data degradation.

Guaranteed!

(DISCLAIMER: Guarantee not guaranteed. Does not cover accidental damage due to age, scratching, dropping, putting in the microwave to watch the impressive light-show, frisbee throws of more than 0.43m exactly, or getting caught under the wheels of your chair. Warranty void at time of purchase. This license rolls your statutory rights into a tube and smokes them.)

The worrying thing is, I'm sure people would buy something like this. Worse, if you tried to persuade them they'd been conned, they'd be the first in line to boast just how much safer they feel, how much faster the experience feels, and no doubt at least a few things the advert never bothered to say. It's human nature to see patterns and imprint them on the world, from medical students who suddenly find themselves coming down with everything from lupus to leprosy depending on which chapter of their textbooks just told them the symptoms, right to perfectly sensible computer users eagerly trying a new tweak or edit they've been told will give their PC a touch-up.

I'm looking at you, Windows Registry cleaners.