July 8 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. named Steven Sinofsky as president of the Windows division, promoting an executive who helped get the operating system back on track after years of delays.

In another management change, Tami Reller will handle sales and marketing for the unit, Microsoft said today in a statement. She will replace Bill Veghte in late July, after the company completes work on the next version of Windows. Veghte will switch to an undisclosed position.

Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer moved Sinofsky to Windows three years ago after product-development problems delayed the Vista operating system by two years. That made it harder for software programmers and computer makers to design compatible products, hurting Vista’s popularity. The current version, Windows 7, is running ahead of Microsoft’s official schedule and early previews have been positive.

Prior to the Windows job, Sinofsky oversaw the development of the Office suite, which handles word processing, spreadsheets and e-mail, where he delivered an upgrade every two to three years. He’s also a former technical assistant to co-founder Bill Gates, a position that often serves as a stepping stone to Microsoft’s executive ranks.

‘Tight Ship’

“He runs a tight ship,” said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at the Kirkland, Washington-based research firm Directions on Microsoft. “He always did a good job getting Office out on time, and he appears to have done the same thing with Windows.”

Sinofsky, Veghte and a third senior vice president, Jon DeVaan, have been reporting directly to Ballmer since Windows President Kevin Johnson left a year ago. DeVaan and Reller will now report to Sinofsky.

Once he moved over to Windows, Sinofsky worked with DeVaan to establish product blueprints and hire planners to measure what features users really wanted. Everything else was put aside, DeVaan said in an interview last year. Previously, separate groups developed their own projects and battled it out to see what made the final cut, he said.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, rose 3 cents to $22.56 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares have climbed 16 percent this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dina Bass in Seattle at dbass2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 8, 2009 17:11 EDT