A month ago, it looked like Microsoft was succeeding in its attempt to refashion its image. A series videos, starring company founder Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld, seemed initally obtuse, but ended up winning the hearts and minds of the chattering classes. It seemed Microsoft had "got it" with a post-modern, hip message for the media-saturated generation. Now, it's not only Apple that appreciates a little deadpan cool can go a long way.

Or so it seemed. 

Yesterday, the company announced that Windows Vista's successor, code-named Windows 7 (and due for alpha release on October 27) will be called ... Windows 7.

The colourless decision drew a barrage of criticism.

But could it be that the very straightforwardness of "Windows 7" is merely the latest expression of Microsoft's newfound droll sense of humour?

No, going by an excruciating blog post by Microsoft Windows Product Management Vice President Mike Nash, which seems to indicate that techies hijacked the naming process, striking on the unremarkable technique of counting the number of previous versions:

"The very first release of Windows was Windows 1.0, the second was Windows 2.0, the third Windows 3.0.

"Here's where things get a little more complicated.  Following Windows 3.0 was Windows NT which was code versioned as Windows 3.1. Then came Windows 95, which was code versioned as Windows 4.0.  Then, Windows 98, 98 SE and Windows Millennium each shipped as 4.0.1998, 4.10.2222, and 4.90.3000, respectively. So we're counting all 9x versions as being 4.0.

"Windows 2000 code was 5.0 and then we shipped Windows XP as 5.1, even though it was a major release we didn't' want to change code version numbers to maximize application compatibility.

"That brings us to Windows Vista, which is 6.0.  So we see Windows 7 as our next logical significant release and 7^th in the family of Windows releases."

Okay, thanks Mike. So much for the $US300 million rebranding campaign.