Microsoft recently announced that they would be taking on the Mac when it comes to user experience.  They intend to make Windows as easy to use and as stable as Mac OS X and bring back some of those users who have left Windows.  Is it doable?  In a word, No.  In many words, the reason they can’t do it is because the vast majority of their installed user base don’t seem to want any type of change other than new features, but they seem to be completely unwilling to give up their old software and their old peripherals.  They want Windows to do everything seamlessly and have it work with every piece of software and hardware ever created, in order to do that the operating system ends up being bloated and slow.  What Microsoft should do is break Windows into two separate operating systems, one for business and for low end computers, and one version of Windows for higher end systems that has the new features that Microsoft wants to put in without having to worry about the backwards compatibility - similar to what Apple did when they decided to ditch the old Mac OS and introduce OS X.  Apple let their customers know that OS X would not work natively with almost anything they had software wise and that the drivers for their peripherals might not be updated, but that newer peripherals would have drivers.  Apple was able to do this with the vast majority of their installed user base because it was so small and so loyal to the Apple brand, it did not hurt that OS X was a massive leap beyond what the older Macintosh operating system had been.  Microsoft doesn’t have the loyal customer base, but what they do have is a massive market share and they can play with that, they can fix the problems with Vista, make it as much like XP with a pretty user interface and then step away from it - no more new features or eye candy.  They could probably get a way with a second service pack that gutted the Vista bits out and put some XP bits in and have all those business owners and low-end computer users be permanently satisfied.  They don’t seem to want change.  Microsoft would then be free to do the work they want to do on a new operating system without having to worry about backwards compatibility.  Windows 7 should be the first to drop support for old peripherals and old software, gear it towards the most loyal group of users who seem to continuously by the latest hardware - gamers and creative types.  Microsoft could work closely with game developers and with graphic design companies to make games and graphics/content creation programs that were custom designed to work flawlessly with the operating system.  Of course the hardware would need to be agreed upon ahead of time, Microsoft should work closely with their biggest sellers in order to come up with a set list of pre-approved hardware that could be rigorously tested to make sure it always worked without any driver issues.  Windows XP could be included on the new system inside of a virtual machine, just like when Mac OS X included OS 9 in order to ease the transition between the two.