Why Does Windows 7 Think it’s Vista?

For quite a while now we have known that the next Windows release is going to be Windows 7. The interesting thing is though, that Windows 7 will use an internal version number of 6.1. Actually, the version number is going to be longer than that, but we won’t know the full version number until Windows 7 goes RTM. In case you are wondering why I am even mentioning this, it is because Windows 6 is Vista.

You might initially assume that the reason why Windows 7′s version number makes it look like a Vista update is because Windows 7 was designed around the Windows Vista kernel. That’s not it though. According to my sources, the version number mimics Vista in an effort to avoid compatibility issues with applications that were designed to run on Vista.