When TechMan wants to look into the future, he usually resorts to scientific prediction tools, such as his Ouija board or Magic 8-Ball.

But to see the future of Microsoft's operating systems, all that is needed is a Web browser. Windows 7, the successor to Vista, has been released to developers and soon will be out in beta -- and the details are emerging on the Web.

Microsoft has announced that the official name of the new release is Windows 7. The software giant has been schizophrenic about names, using years (Windows 95, 98, 2000), evocative names (Vista, Millennium Edition) and now back to version numbers, where it all started (Windows 1, 3). Don't try to count back to figure out how the new version is 7; you'll sprain your brain. Especially since Microsoft refers to 7 as version 6.1.

When will Windows 7 come out? Five years passed between the release of XP and Vista. Before that, major releases came out at intervals of three years or so. Microsoft has said it would like to get back to that cycle, which would mean early 2010 for Windows 7. But recent remarks from Microsoft executives have raised speculation that 7 could come out as early the summer or fall.

Microsoft is calling 7 a major upgrade, but it has not rewritten it completely, as it did between XP and Vista. Windows 7 is Vista with a new skin.

Thus, Windows 7 should not have the software and hardware incompatibilities that plagued Vista. If it runs on Vista it should run on 7.

Not rewriting also means that Microsoft has already done the work on the undercarriage and can concentrate on fit and finish. So Windows 7 will be Vista, but with new features and some problems solved. Will it be perfect? No. Will it be better? It should be.

Here are some particulars that have come out from Windows gurus who have been playing with early releases:

Vista's User Account Control, which warns of changes made to the system and is a major irritant to many users, will be refined. Instead of just on and off, there will be four levels of intrusiveness and the whole thing will be redesigned to be less of a nag.

The Windows Taskbar at the bottom of the screen gets a complete makeover that makes it look more like Apple's Dock. It includes jump lists (commonly needed actions that are associated with the object you're clicking), flyover and full-screen icon previews and a simplified appearance.

A number of features get upgrades. New versions of Internet Explorer, Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player will be included.

Major revisions are made to the Paint utility, the first redo since Windows began; to the calculator, which gets a bunch of new functionality; and to WordPad, which gets a "scenic Ribbon" based on the Ribbon in Office 2007.

Touch support in Windows 7 will pervade all parts of the system, including support for gestures. With a touch-sensitive device, you can flip through documents, squeeze and expand a la the iPhone, rotate etc. Much of this is based on Microsoft's Surface coffee-table sized computer.

Wireless networking should be much easier with a redesigned network center that lists all the available networks and makes joining them easy. Sharing tasks on your home network also should be easier.

Windows management gets a few new tools. With Aero Shake, if you grab the header bar of a window and shake your mouse, all other open windows minimize. With Aero Snaps, if you drag a window to the top of the screen, it will maximize. Drag it back down to restore it. Drag to the right or left edge of the screen, it will tile on that side and take up 50 percent of the screen width. Dragging "off" the edge of the screen returns the window to normal. There are sites on the Web to download this feature for Vista. Just remember it is a beta.

Vista's Sidebar disappears but gadgets live on. Now they are integrated into the desktop with a transparent appearance.

Windows 7 also should read and write to Blu-ray disks.

These are just a glimpse of what is new in Windows 7. You can follow the developments at two excellent sites, Paul Thurrott's winsupersite.com and Ed Bott's Microsoft report at blogs.zdnet.com/bott.