Microsoft senior VP Bill Veghte confirmed at TechEd Monday what everybody has long since figured out: Windows 7 will make it into the stores in time for the holiday sales cycle.

But Microsoft needs to make it to the shelves for back-to-school sales; it needs the money.

Enter Steven Sinofsky, the head of Microsoft's Windows business. He blogged that "If the feedback and telemetry on Windows 7 match our expectations, then we will enter the final of the RTM process in about three months."

Tight schedule. OEMs have to work on the thing before 7-bearing machines can appear. Hence the promise of free upgrades.

Veghte said, hoping to spur enterprise sales, that Del Monte and Pella, the other kind of windows maker, plan to deploy Windows 7 early in 2010.