The new version of Windows under consideration would be a bundle similar to Windows Small Business Server 2003, which includes Windows Server 2003, Windows SharePoint Services, Exchange Server 2003 and several other technologies. However, Microsoft is leaving much of the decision about what to include in the bundle up to its customers.

“A lot of this is really about getting feedback from customers and partners and understanding if this is something that would really meet their needs and whether it is a common-denominator-enough solution that is still powerful enough to build a business on,” said Steven VanRoekel, director of midmarket solutions in the Windows Server group.

Much of that feedback is likely to come from users of a new Windows Server System promotional package that Microsoft announced at its Worldwide Partner Conference in the US last week. The package consists of three Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition licenses, one Exchange Server 2003 Standard Edition license and one Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Workgroup Edition license.