Microsoft's New CEO Faces A Critical Test This Week: Winning Over Microsoft's Most Powerful Allies

This week, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will face his biggest test yet: getting Microsoft's developers excited about Windows again.

There's reason to believe he'll succeed. Last week, he turned in a solid performance in his first public speaking event as CEO.

He revealed Office for iPad, a product people have been asking for from Microsoft for years.

He wasn't a brilliant orator, but he successfully set a new tone for Microsoft. He won over a lot of people in the press, and - of more importance - investors liked him. The stock is over $40, hitting prices it hasn't seen in 14 years.

Nadella still has one more group to win over, though - the programmers that write software for Windows, Windows phone and Microsoft's cloud. Without them and their apps, Windows and all of its derivatives would be dead in the water.

Microsoft is hosting Build, its conference for developers starting Wednesday morning in San Francisco.

"We'll be talking about the innovations in Windows, because one of the questions right up front I wanted to address was, 'What about Windows?' 'Where does Windows fit in with all of this?' " said Nadella last week. "Windows is a massive agenda for us. We will innovate and you will see us talk next week about the great innovations in the operating system and great innovations in devices."

Last year's Build conference was a somewhat somber affair. Microsoft was at a cross-roads. Its brand new touch operating system, Windows 8, wasn't popular, its Surface PC and Surface RT tablets weren't selling well, the company had gone through a major reorg, and Ballmer, unbeknownst to the crowd at the time, was getting ready to resign.

This week, as Nadella steps onto the stage of a sold-out crowd, his No.1 job is to show off a compelling vision for Microsoft's future again. We expect to hear about the following things:

• Windows 9: Microsoft is currently working on a Windows version codenamed "Threshold," expected to become Windows 9, reports blogger Paul Thurrott of The Supersite for Windows. It should be available at next year's Build, but we expect Microsoft to talk it up and start the hype to get past Windows' 8 bad reputation. Windows 9 should be to Windows 8 what Windows 7 was to Vista - the antidote.
• Progress on the "one Windows" vision: Microsoft is supposed to be unifying some of its Windows platforms, so that a single operating system will run on phones and certain tablets. This would make Windows look a lot more like Apple's strategy, with one system for PCs and convertibles and one for smartphones and tablets. This will likely be part of its Windows 9 plan.
• Touch-friendly Office for Windows 8. Microsoft did the shocking thing of releasing a touch-friendly version of Office for the iPad before it released one for Windows. We should hear all about the one coming for Windows 8, including a release date.
• Cortina for Windows phone: Microsoft's answer to Siri. Microsoft is also expected to add other new features to Windows phone, like a new radio app.
• New Windows phone devices from Nokia: People are expecting Microsoft to show off the newest version of Windows phone on new Lumia devices, and possibly even a Nokia watch.
• Windows phone for business users: Microsoft said a new version of Windows phone for enterprises would be out in the first half of this year, known as "Windows Phone Enterprise Feature Pack." Microsoft may announce that it is shipping.
• The next version minor of Windows 8: Microsoft typically releases an update to Windows around Build and this time we expect Windows 8.1 Update 1, which was leaked about a month ago. It will have more features to appease desktop PC users.
• New features for Bing, Office 365. These were Nadella's babies before he became CEO. Bing, in particular, has become a key ingredient for developers who can tap into search data, maps, travel information and more for their apps.
• Lots of news around Microsoft's cloud: There's a war going on between Amazon, Google and Microsoft to grab developers for the cloud. Amazon and Google made announcements last week. Expect Microsoft to try and wow them this week.