At the moment, we know tantalizingly little about Windows 7–the successor to Windows Vista–aside from the fact that we could see it within the next three years. Maybe that’s why everyone is so excited about a little tidbit recently leaked by Windows 7 test engineer Hilton Locke. In a blog post, Locke hints that multitouch capabilities will be coming to Windows with the next version of the OS. “I will say that if you are impressed by the “touch features” in the iPhone, you’ll be blown away by what’s coming in Windows 7,” Locke wrote, adding “Now if only we could convince more OEMs that Windows Touch Technology is going to drive their sales.” Multitouch and Windows aren’t such strange bedfellows if you think about it: Dell’s Latitude XT will soon get multitouch capabilities in Vista and Microsoft’s Surface project uses a Windows PC to drive a huge multitouch display. Still, the idea of multitouch functionality built-into a consumer level operating system is pretty exciting. Don’t you agree, Apple?

For more on multitouch in Windows:
– check out Locke’s blog post