Microsoft's servers have been overwhelmed this morning as subscribers to its MSDN and TechNet services scramble to download the newly issued Windows 7 Release Candidate. The continued demand is another good sign for the next version of Microsoft's flagship product, following generally positive reviews for early builds.

But the Windows team is being careful not to declare victory yet.

"We feel very confident about the quality of the product, the path we're on, and being able to meet our goals," said Jeff Price, senior director of Windows product management. At the same time, he made it clear that the team is doing its best to keep that confidence in check. "We're trying to be cautiously optimistic," he said.

That means Microsoft is still declining to give a release date for Windows 7, or even to confirm that it will be released in time for the holidays. As noted earlier this week, it's highly unusual for Microsoft to keep the date under wraps this far into the Windows development process. The company wants to be certain Windows 7 will be ready before it goes public with a date.

"We just have to make sure we're driving it based on quality, not based on anticipation of a schedule," Price said.

That's one way the new Windows team, under engineering chief Steven Sinofsky, has tried to apply lessons learned from Windows Vista's difficult debut. At the same time, Microsoft has changed the way it works with the hardware and software vendors whose products run on the operating system -- trying to avoid the compatibility problems that plagued Windows 7's predecessor.

"We didn't provide information to those folks until we knew it was rock solid and wasn't going to change," Price said. "That seems brain-dead simple, but that was a new approach, which meant that they could count on what we were saying -- which meant that they could make plans that stuck."

To be sure, this Windows version benefits hugely from the fact that the underlying architecture is essentially Windows Vista, evolved. It's not the huge technical leap that Windows Vista was over Windows XP. That means compatibility is a lot easier.

In one indication of that fact, the company today released final Windows 7 system requirements that are essentially the same as those for Windows Vista.

1GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
1GB RAM (32-bit) / 2GB RAM (64-bit)
16GB available disk space (32-bit) / 20 GB (64-bit)
DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Microsoft says it has also taken other steps to ensure compatibility, such as expanding the system of labs around the world where software and hardware companies can get help making their products work with Windows 7. In May, the company plans to give its partners the tools for putting the Windows 7 logo on their products, Price said. That's much earlier in the process than normal.

As a reality check on its progress, the company will now be looking for feedback on the release candidate from its partners and customers.

There have been many changes and adjustments under the hood, but in terms of new features, the release candidate isn't much changed from earlier Windows 7 builds. One exception: With the release candidate, company is adding a feature called Remote Media Streaming that lets people access audio and video from their other home computers over the Internet from other locations. That expands a capability previously available on home networks.

Microsoft is also releasing a beta version of the new Windows XP Mode for Windows 7 in conjunction with the release candidate.

The company says the Windows 7 Release Candidate will be available for download by the general public May 5, following today's initial availability to Microsoft's technical subscribers.