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Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) expects to launch commercially Windows 7, the next version of its Windows operating system, in time for the 2009 holiday season, a senior Windows manager said Monday.

A public commitment from Microsoft that it expects to be able to get the software into stores in time for the key retail season will be a relief for the company, as well as its large customers and investors.

"We're tracking well to deliver Windows 7 in time for holiday availability based on the groundswell of feedback we received from the partner ecosystem, customers and through our own internal testing from pre-Beta to now," Bill Veghte, senior vice president for Windows, said in a statement. He added, however, that Microsoft "will not ship the product...until it meets our quality bar."

With Windows 7, Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft is hoping to restore its reputation as the world's pre-eminent software maker, an image that has been tarnished by, among other things, a broadly negative reaction to Windows Vista, the current version of the Windows operating system.

Windows, which generates approximately one-third of Microsoft's $60 billion in annual sales and is on more than 90% of the world's personal computers, is the company's most important product. Delivering a smooth launch of Windows 7 in time for the 2009 holiday season will go some way toward persuading both consumers and corporate customers Microsoft has learned the lessons of Vista, whose unveiling was dogged by incompatibility with other applications and peripherals and the need for costly hardware upgrades.

Veghte also told attendees at the TechEd user conference Monday in Los Angeles that large customers including Del Monte Foods Co. (DLM) and window maker Pella Corp. planned to deploy Windows 7 early.

Microsoft hopes that by signing large corporations up for early adoption, it will be able to persuade other corporate customers of the merits of Windows 7. Many large organizations have resisted using Vista, relying on its predecessor, Windows XP.

Jonathan Wynn, technology manager at Del Monte, said the company liked Windows 7, in part because Del Monte wouldn't need to upgrade large numbers of its computers for the operating system to run efficiently. Wynn said he plans to start testing Windows 7 with about 100 users in the fall and will deploy it more broadly early in 2010.

-By Jessica Hodgson, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-439-6455; jessica.hodgson@dowjones.com