Windows 7, the next version of Microsoft's operating system for desktops, laptops, and netbooks, will be released on October 22, Microsoft announced yesterday. The company also announced that, as with past upgrades to Windows, those buying Windows Vista close to the Windows 7 launch would get a free copy of the new OS when it is ready. No date for that program was announced.

Meantime, Acer has announced that it will begin selling netbooks this fall that will carry Google's Android operating system, now used exclusively on smart phones.

The takeaway: The Windows 7 release date, earlier than many analysts expected, means you'll be able to get a PC that runs Windows 7 for the holiday season, though students won't be able to get the OS in time to have it on their new back-to-school machines, at least when classes begin.

If you're on the fence about when to buy a new PC, it might be worth holding off until Windows 7 arrives. Some pundits have dubbed the new OS "Vista done right." It's similar in many respects to Vista, but with some rough edges smoothed over and some performance gains. It should be faster, require less processing power and memory, and have fewer application crashes than was the case with Vista.

Our first look at the "public beta" release (available to subscribers) found many of the built-in programs and system utilities more effective and simpler to use than with Vista. At the same time, it's easier to replace some Windows 7 features, such as Media Player 12 and Internet Explorer 8, with non-Microsoft alternatives. Windows 7 can more easily integrate with Microsoft's Windows Live cloud-computing services, which run applications installed on remote computers called servers, rather than on the user's PC. A new feature called HomeGroup provides an easier way to network computers in your household. And there are lots of visual and navigational enhancements to the desktop and Windows Explorer functions.

The date after which buyers would get a free Windows 7 upgrade is likely to be sometime this summer. If you can't wait until October to get a new computer, at least consider holding off until the date that the free Windows 7 upgrade kicks in. However, as we pointed out in our guide to upgrading from Windows XP to Vista, it’s not always easy to upgrade to a new operating system. You might need to resolve software incompatibilities, upgrade security software, or install drivers.

Microsoft says netbooks sold today will be able to run all versions of Windows 7, but netbook vendors haven't released upgrade plans yet. We expect some version of Windows 7 to be pre-installed on netbooks.

Indeed, the timing of the Windows 7 launch, some three months earlier than originally expected, may have been influenced by the expected arrival of the Acer netbooks that will use Android, a free operating system from Google that is expected to result in cheaper netbooks than those running Windows. Other manufacturers, including Asus, are also poised to launch Android netbooks. —Paul Reynolds

After the author's iPod and computer died, iTunes helped restore her MP3s. [Photo: threefingeredlord/Flickr]

In a stunning reversal of my life-long good luck, my newish Mac mini computer blew its hard drive last month. This followed on the heels of the fatal crash of the five-year old iPod that had served as my back-up for thousands of songs, bought from iTunes, that were on my now-dead computer.

Two strikes - am I out? Is it too late to buy the back-up copy of my music that iTunes has been offering me, for about $250?

I searched the iTunes site in vain for any remedy, and finally, without much hope, made a phone appointment to speak to Apple support. The rep called, exactly at the appointed time, and said that iTunes would reload my music, gratis, to another computer. (No, I never told them I worked at Consumer Reports; we’re explicitly forbidden from using our affiliation for personal gain.)

I didn’t quite believe her. But soon after I brought home a new computer, an iTunes rep, Sandra, working on Mountain time, began to retrieve my songs and sending them to me via e-mail. I was thrilled—and also secretly convinced my good fortune was the result of good karma from skipping illegal downloads and buying all the songs in a way that supported artists for their work.

Sandra managed to retrieve a few hundred songs, but nowhere near the full load. I was puzzled, until I recalled that I had recently changed my iTunes account from a historic AOL ID to an Apple ID. This shifted my case to another rep—William, Pacific time—and escalated its complexity.

William downloaded the music to my old AOL account, but the system wouldn’t let me get to it. He then created a new phantom account for me, to which he began uploading songs, in batches of 200 or so. I happily spent a recent weekend at my desk downloading 1,686 songs.

All told I retrieved about 2,000 songs—everything I purchased, save for a few dozen songs (mainly free downloads) that I couldn’t retrieve because they were not available at the same price—or only the price of persistence: a total of 24 emails back and forth.

Here’s what I learned in the process:

First, my music collection is something I care about way beyond the actual cost of the music. I hand-picked those songs over five years, and they ranged from classic rock, alternative, techno, and trance, through Kanye West and the amazing jazz voice of Madeleine Peyroux.

Second, while Consumer Reports doesn’t rate tech support for iTunes, or other online music stores, my experience suggests it rivals that for Apple computers, which perennially receive high scores in our laptop tech support Ratings and desktop tech support Ratings (available to subscribers).

Finally, and maybe most importantly, I learned that even the lucky need back up, preferably in two locations—as my colleagues in the Electronics franchise urge. So once my musical horse was back in the barn, I thought I’d double lock the door by joining MobileMe, Apple’s cloud storage service, and buying a hard drive back-up. MobileMe uploads way too slow to store music, but I successfully backed up my computer to the hard-drive in less than a half-hour, via a Firewire 8 connection and TimeMachine – the backup software built into Apple’s operating system.

Meantime, I’ve got my music backed up on my iPhone and I’m listening to my rescued songs on shuffle and greatly admiring my own musical taste :)  Here’s wishing you many happy back ups! —Ronni Sandroff, Director/Editor, Health and Family

Technology policy is at the heart of the Obama administration, Susan Crawford, special assistant to the president for technology, science, and innovation policy, told attendees at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference in Washington, DC, today.

Among the administration technology moves that she cited:

• Appointing the first chief technology and chief information officers in the White House

• Launching an online safety and technology group under the auspices of the Department of Commerce that will look at empowering parents to protect their children online

• Providing a new searchable Web site, Data.gov that links to a wide variety of databases covering topics from HHS info on H1N1 flu to a study of residential energy consumption

The administration is still young, however, Crawford added. Its upcoming goals include improving broadband accessibility in the United States. “The key to innovation years ago was being near a port or river,” she said. For small businesses today, she added, broadband is essential.

“This is about restoring American competitiveness,” she said. “Our broadband connections are slow and expensive. We are not falling behind. We are definitively behind.”  The ultimate goal: to close the gap in broadband between rural and urban, rich and poor, and racial divides. —Donna Tapellini