Microsoft has promoted 20-year veteran Steven Sinofsky to president of the Windows division, nearly a year after he was selected as senior vice president for the Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group. In his new position, Sinofsky will oversee both engineering and marketing for Windows, Windows Live and Internet Explorer. The transition will take place at the end of July, when the new Windows 7 operating system is scheduled to be released to computer manufacturers, according to a Microsoft news release.

Microsoft’s Windows leadership was long overdue for an upgrade and Sinofsky has been the more public face associated with the successor to Windows Vista. That’s not to say his promotion isn’t well-deserved; he and his team have done an impressive job turning Vista’s PR fiasco into Windows 7’s bright future. Another senior engineering manager for Windows, Jon DeVaan, will continue on his role as senior vice president of the Windows Core Operating System Division and will report to Sinofsky.

Other shifts within the company include Tami Reller, CFO for the Windows Division who will assume “the additional responsibility for marketing,” and Bill Veghte, who will be moving to a new leadership role that will be announced later this year.