Are you ready for the next version of Windows? The people at Microsoft who make it are betting you will be -- and that you'll actually like it.

Micosoft says the new incarnation of its operating system will be much less annoying than its current occupant of your PC hard drive, Vista. For one thing, Microsoft is promising that there will be fewer of those "Are you sure?" -- "Are you really, really sure?" questions that pop up whenever you do anything from install a program to open an attachment or delete a file. Such rampant notifications alerting people to potential security risks irked many Vista users.

It's expected that people will be able to start test-driving the new OS early next year.