Steven Sinofsky, the head of Microsoft's Windows division, has left the company with immediate effect.

BBC: Steven Sinofsky

Mr Klein's departure was announced just months after Steven Sinofsky, the head of Windows, quit the firm.

BBC: Amy Hood

His departure comes just months after the Steven Sinofsky, the head of Windows division, quit the firm.

BBC: Google and Microsoft see a jump in profits

The division saw its vocal head Steven Sinofsky being ousted and replaced with two new executives.

FORBES: Microsoft Needs To Deliver Some Good News On Windows 8

Then I looked at a CNET profile of Steven Sinofsky.

BBC: Windows boss shown the door

As we enter this new era, and with the successful launch of Windows 8 and Surface behind us, Steven Sinofsky has decided to leave the company.

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Microsoft has had its own share of ritual beheadings, most recently and visibly, Steven Sinofsky, the former leader of the Windows Division, who clashed with other top executives.

FORBES: Turmoil In Tech Drives Turnover

Several leading executives, touted by outsiders at one time or another as potential successors to Ballmer, have left the company in the last few years, most recently Windows unit chief Steven Sinofsky, who departed in November.

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Perhaps Microsoft's Windows chief, Steven Sinofsky, will have more to say during his appearance at the D9 conference next week -- Winrumors is reporting that he may even be set to demo the company's Windows 8 Tablet UI.

ENGADGET: Ballmer: 'next generation of Windows systems' coming next year

"Since our first preview release last September, millions of people now use the pre-release product on a daily basis and millions more have been taking it through its paces, totaling hundreds of millions of hours of testing, " Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky wrote Friday on the Windows 8 blog.

CNN: Final preview moves Windows 8 toward tablets