The latest status report in Microsoft's U.S. antitrust case mentions that the company has submitted a build of Windows 7, the next version of the PC operating system, for review by the technical committee involved in the case. The report was filed last week, but it slipped under the radar until it was noted within the last day by Information Week and others.

Here's the full report: PDF, 23 pages. And here are excerpts from the report's Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 references:

As noted in the prior status report, as the scheduled expiration of the relevant portions of the Final Judgment approached, the TC [Technical Committee] identified a number of remaining middleware-related bugs and requested that Microsoft address these issues. Microsoft has corrected most of these issues, and the TC has tested the fixes. Microsoft has included these corrections in XP SP 3 or Vista SP 1, as appropriate. A remaining bug in the "Open With" feature will be corrected in "Windows 7," the announced successor to Windows Vista. The TC and Microsoft continue to discuss another middleware issue, which the TC has sought to have Microsoft include in Windows 7.

In addition, the TC has begun to review Windows 7 itself. Microsoft recently supplied the TC with a build of Windows 7, and is discussing TC testing going forward. The TC will conduct middleware-related tests on future builds of Windows 7.

Plaintiffs reported in the last status report on their agreement with Microsoft to resolve any Final Judgment concerns relating to the desktop search functionality in Windows Vista ("Desktop Search"). The TC reviewed Microsoft's implementation of the changes agreed to, and Microsoft included the new Desktop Search features in Vista SP 1, which Microsoft recently released to OEMs.