"A holiday release is accomplishable of the Windows 7 operating system," Bill Veghte of Microsoft said in an interview. He declined to say whether the world's largest software maker could start selling Windows 7 earlier, as some analysts predict. Microsoft is looking to Windows 7 to win back customers who delayed upgrading to Vista, which went on sale in January 2007. Sales of Windows for personal computers dropped 16 percent last quarter, hurt by the recession and demand for cheaper laptops that use an 8-year-old version of Windows.