After yesterday's ruling, it's looking like the lawsuit over Microsoft's Windows Vista Capable marketing program probably won't produce a big class-action payout for PC users. But the case has provided a valuable glimpse inside the company.

The dispute produced a steady stream of internal emails, many of them embarrassing to the company, but I'm thinking instead about the February 2007 email in which Steven Sinofsky analyzed Windows Vista's development and launch -- explaining to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer where the company went wrong, and how it could have been better. 

The message is even more relevant now as a view into the mind of Sinofsky, who took over as Windows chief after Vista's launch and is now leading the charge toward Windows 7's debut. So I went back and found the message again in the case file this morning. Read on for the full text.

From: Steven Sinofsky

Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2007 12:08 PM

To: Steve Ballmer

Cc: Bill Veghte, Jon DeVaan

Subject: RE: Vista

I think folks are working on this now and we just need time.

Basically I think three things worked against us:

No one really believed we would ever ship so they didn't start the work until very late in 2006. This led to the lack of availability. For example my home multi-function printer did not have drivers until 2/2 and even pulled their 1/30 drivers and re-released them (Brother).

Massive change in the underpinnings for video and audio really led to a poor experience at RTM, especially with respect to Windows Media Center. This change led to incompatibilities. For example, you don't get Aero with an XP driver, but your card might not (ever) have a Vista driver.

A lot of change led to many Windows XP drivers not really working at all -- this is across the board for printers, scanners, wan, accessories (fingerprint readers, smartcards, tv tuners), and so on. This category is due to the fact that many of the associated applets don't run within the constraints of the security model or the new video/audio driver models. For example, OrlandoA [Orlando Ayala, a Microsoft executive] is not on Vista because there are no drivers for his Verizon card yet. Microsoft's own hardware was missing a lot of support (fingerprint reader, MCE extender, etc.)

People who rely on using all the features of their hardware (like Jon's Nikon scanner) will not see availability for some time, if ever, depending on the mfg. The built-in drivers never have all the features but do work. For example, I could print with [my] Brother printer and use it as a stand-alone fax. But network setup, scanning, print to fax must come from Brother.

The Vista Ready logo program required drivers available on 1/30. I think we had had reasonable coverage, but quality was uneven as I experienced.

Intel has the biggest challenge. Their "945" chipset which is the baseline Vista set "barely" works right now and is very broadly used. The "915" chipset which is not Aero capable is in a huge number of laptops and was tagged as "Vista Capable" but not Vista Premium. I don't know if this was a good call. But these function but will never be great. Even a 945 set has new builds of drivers coming out constantly but hopes are on the next chipset rather than this one.

The point Jim [Allchin, Sinofsky's predecessor] had of declaring a Release Candidate was because he sensed people were not really working under a deadline in the ecosystem. This helped even though we knew we had more work to do on our side.

So far I am surprised at the low call volume in PSS. I think we have a lot of new PCs which helps and the hobbyist people who bought FPP/UPG just know what to do and aren't calling, but I know they are struggling.

All of this is why we need much more clarity and focus at events like WinHEC. We need to be clearer with industry and we need to decide what we will do and do that well and 100% and not just do a little of everything which leaves the IHV in a confused state.

Sinofsky has clearly been following this blueprint with Windows 7, as reflected in the positive reception to the public beta. But the real test will come with the final release, presumably later this year.