Microsoft executive Mike Nash, currently the corporate vice president for Windows Platform Strategy, is apparently preparing to leave the company. A widely circulated statement from a Microsoft spokesperson said Nash will depart "in a couple weeks."

Nash spent 19 years at Microsoft, where he held a number of positions related to Windows and security. During a 2008 class action lawsuit filed against Microsoft over whether "Vista Capable" PCs could truly run that operating system, the plaintiffs' attorneys highlighted an internal e-mail from Nash that supposedly read: "I personally got burnt ... Are we seeing this from customers? ... I now have a $2,100 e-mail machine." Microsoft argued in court that Nash's e-mail had been taken out of context along with others.

Nash isn't the first high-level Windows executive to recently announce his departure. On Jan. 15, Microsoft announced that Bill Veghte, also a 19-year veteran of the company, would be leaving at the end of that month. "Bill has indicated a desire to run a business in a more end-to-end fashion and continue to explore new ideas in the broad technology, communications and services sectors," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer wrote in a Jan. 15 statement. "I want to thank Bill for his important contributions to Microsoft over nearly two decades and wish him the best in his new endeavors."

I can think of two explanations for this minor uptick in executive departures: Either they've been harboring thoughts of leaving for some time, but delayed until Windows 7 was successfully launched, or else Windows Division President Steven Sinofsky has initiated some sort of shakeup.

In any case, it'll be interesting to see how Sinofsky structures his team going forward, but I'm also wondering what sort of effect this legacy brain-drain will have on the development of Windows 8, which the rumor mill suggests could be released in 2012 ("We have nothing to share about Windows 8 at this point," various Microsoft spokespeople tell me, whenever I ask for updates).