Concept Logo Design was sent Windows 7

Microsoft to Launch Windows Azure Cloud Computing Service With Windows 7

The news is coming in thick and fast from PDC08. Microsoft have just announced that Windows Azure, a new cloud computing service, will be launched at the same time as Windows 7. Windows Azure will allow data and applications to exist online in the ‘Cloud’, rather than locally on a PC.
Moving Microsoft’s cash cows, Windows and Office, onto the internet is a big move for Microsoft and will allow it to enter an arena already occupied by companies like Google. By tying it to the launch of Windows 7, Microsoft clearly intend to use Windows 7 to try and entice customers to use Microsoft’s other products and services, rather than those of their customers.
One of the touted benefits of Azure is zero downtime for applications, as applications can be patched without shutting down other running applications. I hope this will lead to new functionality being added to Windows applications more frequently, rather than the current 2 year product cycle. It will also do away with the need to constantly run Windows Update and reboot local machines, as more updates will be done automatically.
Key components of the Azure Services Platform include the following:
* Windows Azure for service hosting and management, low-level scalable storage, computation and networking * Microsoft SQL Services for a wide range of database services and reporting * Microsoft .NET Services which are service-based implementations of familiar .NET Framework concepts such as workflow and access control * Live Services for a consistent way for users to store, share and synchronize documents, photos, files and information across their PCs, phones, PC applications and Web sites * Microsoft SharePoint Services and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Services for business content, collaboration and rapid solution development in the cloud

Windows 7 Reviewer’s Guide

Microsoft has released a first draft version of the Windows 7 Reviewer’s Guide which is basically a first look type of guide that has been divided into three main categories that addresses certain user groups; The categories are Windows 7 for end users, Windows 7 for professionals and Windows 7 for the ecosystem. The guide does contain quite a few screenshots of a current build of Windows 7 which might make it interesting for users who just want to see how the upcoming operating system looks in this stage of development.
The new features, like the Windows 7 Taskbar, that have been introduced at the PDC 08 are already included in the guide which makes the guide a great read for everyone who missed the conference and wants to know what has changed since the last week.

Windows 7 Extends Run As Options

Windows Vista users had the option to run an application as the system administrator instead of the currently logged in user. There was however no option in the context menu to run the application as a different user. The current build of Windows 7 has this feature which should come in handy for several users who need the functionality. The context menu entry “Run As Different User” is only visible when pressing the SHIFT key before right-clicking the file icon.

Windows 7 Aero Snap For Windows XP Or Windows Vista

Aero Snap was one of the new features of Windows 7 that got quite a bit of coverage lately. It is actually a pretty basic feature that makes it possible to move windows to the left, right or top screen to display them on half the screen (left or right) or maximize (top) them. Several third party software programs are available that can do that on Windows Vista or Windows XP but it is always nice if the exact same feature is provided by an application.
Aero Snap Beta (via Ask VG) is that software program. It is available for Windows XP or Windows Vista and requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0. The software developer has created a demonstration video to visualize the concept. The functionality is immediately available after installation. Do you know of other Windows 7 features that are available for previous versions of Windows? Let us know.

Windows 7 Boot Speed Benchmark

Lifehacker tested the boot speed of Windows 7, Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 and Windows XP Professional SP3 on a triple-boot system. All tested operating systems were 32-bit versions. Test 1 measured the boot time from boot choice to a fully loaded desktop while test 2 measured the time from boot choice to user logon screen. No additional software was installed on the operating systems, the autostart folders were empty and all settings were left on their default values.
Windows 7 Ultimate needed 32 seconds in test 1 from boot choice to a fully loaded desktop while Windows Vista Ultimate used 33 seconds and Windows XP SP3 40 seconds. The test from boot choice to login screen saw similar results with Windows 7 Ultimate leading the field with 23 seconds, Windows Vista Ultimate following suite with 24 seconds and Windows XP SP3 in third place and 29 seconds.
The results are interesting: Windows 7 is already leading the field even though the tests were conducted on a pre-beta build of the upcoming operating system. More surprising for some users, especially the die hard faction that does not like Windows Vista, is the excellent result for Windows Vista which was way faster than Windows XP SP3 in both tests.
It would be interesting to see how the operating systems would fare with a basic set of software, like anti-virus scanners, email clients, web browser or a photo editing program, installed. Would the results be similar except that the boot time would surely increase?
The result looks very promising for Windows 7. It is safe to assume that Microsoft will further optimize the operating system. It remains to be seen if this will make a huge difference in the end. Currently it does not for Windows Vista users but surely for Windows XP users.

Unlock Locked Features in Windows 7 M3

Microsoft has locked some of the upcoming features in the Windows 7 release that they distributed among attendees of the Professional Developers Conference 08 in Los Angeles. The build has made its way on various P2P sites shortly thereafter and is now in the hands of thousands of additional users who downloaded it from there. Features came to light shortly after the end of the conference that had been locked by Microsoft. Unlocking those features involved fiddling around with the command line which is not to everyone’s liking.
The Blue Badge tool changes and simplifies the process. Rafael Rivera created the tool over at Within Windows. The 32-bit edition of the software program is already available while the 64-bit edition is expected to be released tomorrow. A total of nine files will be patched by the tool. Please note that the files will not be backed up before applying the patches.

Windows 7 Tech Guarantee Program

Microsoft is planning a Windows 7 Tech Guarantee Program which will make it possible for Windows Vista owners to upgrade their operating system to Windows 7. They have not released many information yet about the program but some have been published at Neowin today.
Not all editions of Windows Vista will be eligible for the upgrade. Only Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate owners will have the chance and only if they have bought it in one of the following languages: Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong), Turkish.
Some languages (like Swedish) might be missing and could be included at a later point. It is also very likely that the upgrade will only be eligible for a comparable edition of Windows 7. Windows Vista Home Premium users for example should not have high hopes to be able to upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate without costs. Microsoft is said to release additional information later this month.

Windows 7 Language Waves

Microsoft has released information about the so called language waves of Windows 7. Windows 7 will be released in a total of eight language waves which basically define when a localized edition of Windows 7 will be released to manufacturing. Please take a look at the table below for information about the eight language waves and any language in particular that you might be interested in. Each language wave is released about 14 days after the previous wave. The time between the first and last release makes up 101 days.

Windows 7 Screen Docking

New Windows 7 features are revealed every day. This one is actually a bit older but has not been mentioned yet here at Windows 7. Screen docking is popular feature that is currently only available by installed third party software to previous versions of the Windows operating system.
The feature basically docks and displays a window in a certain way depending on the side of the screen that it is moved to. A window will be displayed on half of the screen if the user moves it to the left or right side of it. That’s comfortable for viewing two windows that use the same amount of screen estate next to each other and should be a good option for users with large computer monitors. Moving the window to the top will turn it into a full sized window taking up all screen estate. Moving it to the bottom has no effect currently.

Windows 7 to have support for Virtual Hard Disks

Windows super-sleuth Long Zheng keeps his eye on the Microsoft jobs listings and discovers some information about a potential new feature for the thus far super-secretive Windows 7 OS - native support for Virtual Hard Disks (VHDs):
Do you want to join the team that is bringing virtualization into the mainstream? In Windows 7, our team will be responsible for creating, mounting, performing I/O on, and dismounting VHDs (virtual hard disks) natively. Imagine being able to mount a VHD on any Windows machine, do some offline servicing and then boot from that same VHD. Or perhaps, taking an existing VHD you currently use within Virtual Server and boost performance by booting natively from it.
And so it goes on …
If this feature actually survives to RTM (and let’s face it, that’s a very big if … history is littered with great ideas that never saw light of day) then this will be a really neat feature. In fact, I can think of a good dozen situations where this feature would be dead handy right now.
Anyone want to take bets on whether this feature actually makes it to RTM?

First Look at the ‘Core’ of Windows 7

On October 13, Microsoft’s distinguished engineer Eric Traut gave a presentation at the University of Illinois about Microsoft’s virtualization technology and also mentioned Windows 7 - the next version of Windows after Vista. And believe it or not it was on video. Whilst the presentation is not directly about Windows 7, it does contain a demonstration of MinWin - an internal project to build the most efficient Windows kernel which will in turn be used in Windows 7.
The whole presentation (WMV) goes for approximately 1 hour and includes a very deep look into hypervisors. I’ve clipped out the 8-minute segment which Eric focuses on Windows 7 specifically to make it easier to watch. Because Eric goes into a lot of detail as well as background information about what is presented, and because it’s 2AM, I won’t regurgitate it. All I’ll say is that if you think Windows at its core is bloated, think again.

Windows Server 7 : Direct Connect

Microsoft IT (the internal IT organisation) is currently running a pilot called "Direct Connect". Direct Connect is like Outlook Anywhere where you connect to the internal Exchange Server from outside the corporate network without a VPN connection but through RPC_over_HTTPs) Direct connect uses IPv6 and IPSec to build a tunnel from outside the corporate network to any resource that needs to access internal network (file shares, LOB applications) This pilot will end up as feature in the server edition of Windows 7. It will require a trusted identity like smartcards

Windows 7 Tablet Features

Hilton Locke, Tablet PC Test Engineer at Microsoft, recently commented on his impressions of the "touch features" of the Windows 7 comparing it against those seen on the iPhone from Apple.
Hilton says in his blog "I will say that if you are impressed by the "touch features" in the iPhone, you’ll be blown away by what’s coming in Windows 7. Now if only we could convince more OEMs that Windows Touch Technology is going to drive their sales."
It will be interesting to see how those translate in the RTM produc

Blog divulges OS details of ‘Windows 7'

For the second time in five weeks, information about a key upcoming Microsoft product has come to light because of a presentation placed on the company’s Web site by an employee in Denmark.
According to a PowerPoint presentation download PDF created by a technical staffer at Microsoft Denmark, the software vendor plans to invest in four major areas in the next client version of Windows after Vista. Microsoft has already begun working on its next OS, and one executive indicated last month that the company hopes to ship the follow-on during 2009 — although Microsoft later issued a statement saying that it is “not giving official guidance to the public yet about the next version of Windows.”
The PowerPoint presentation, which is dated January 31 and can be accessed via Microsoft’s download.microsoft.com site, was publicised on Aeroxperience, an independent blog aimed at Windows Vista developers.
The Aeroxperience posting says that two slides in the presentation contain information that “more than likely applies to ‘Windows Seven,’” the codename that Microsoft is said to be using internally for the successor to Vista.
According to the slides, planned areas of investment for end users in Windows Seven include making it easier to find information and improving mobile connectivity. For example, a detailed list of future Windows features includes converged local, network and internet search capabilities and improved wireless connectivity, management and security.
For IT professionals, the presentation indicates, planned improvements include added security measures, such as extending data protection and management capabilities to peripheral devices and expanding usage monitoring capabilities for compliance purposes. Cutting PC operating costs will also be a priority, via new features such as simplified provisioning and upgrading of systems, according to the slides.Last month, Aeroxperience was the first to report that Microsoft planned to spend US$1 billion per year on development of the next version of Office, which is referred to by Microsoft employees as Office 14 and is expected to be ready for release in the first half of 2009.
In the Office-related posting, Aeroxperience cited a different PowerPoint presentation apparently created by another Microsoft Denmark employee that was also hosted on the download.microsoft.com site. That presentation has since been taken down by Microsoft, although Aeroxperience still has copies of some of the slides on its web site.
Microsoft didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the various blog postings related to Windows Seven.

Windows 7 FAQ

Paul Thurrott updated his Windows 7 FAQ today. Information below. Again note his beliefs that Microsoft will ship Windows 7 as 64 bit only.
Q: Is Microsoft working on an operating system after Windows Vista?A: Yes. The next client version of Windows was originally codenamed “Blackcomb,” though the company renamed it to “Windows Vienna” in early 2006 and to “Windows Seven” or “Windows 7? more recently. I prefer Vienna, so I’ll continue to refer to it by that name here.
Q: Why Windows 7?Since Windows Vista is really Windows 6.0, Vienna will presumably be version 7.0.
Q: I heard that Windows Vista will be the last major OS release from Microsoft. Is that true?A: No. Windows-based PCs will continue to form the center of our digital lifestyles, and as Microsoft executives have noted in recent days, there are still plenty of areas in which Microsoft can improve Windows. Some obvious examples include voice recognition and storage.
Q: So is Vienna going to be a major Windows version?A: No. Windows Vista was a major release, and Vienna will be a relatively minor, or interim, update. Microsoft is currently on a development path where every other Windows version is a major release.
Q: When will Vienna ship?A: Microsoft currently plans to ship Vienna in 2009, about two to two and a half years after Vista. The next major release of Windows is expected two years after Vienna, in 2011. (Windows Server updates are on a similar cycle.)
Q: What features will be included in Windows Vienna?A: Microsoft hasn’t publicly committed to any features for Vienna and the company is currently still deciding what this next Windows release will look like. We do know a few things about Vienna, however: It will include a new version of Windows Explorer that is being built by the same team that designed the Ribbon user interface in Office 2007. It will likely include some form of the “Hypervisor” (Windows Virtualization) technologies that will ship shortly after Windows Server “Longhorn”. It will also likely include the WinFS (Windows Future Storage) technologies, though they won’t be packaged or branded as WinFS.
Q: That’s it?A: Remember, it’s early yet and Microsoft is being very secretive about future Windows versions. However, the company has publicly issued a bit of information about the broad capabilities it intends to include in Vienna. This information comes from a publicly-available Microsoft slide deck:
Easier. Vienna will make it easier for users to find and use information. Local, network and Internet search functionality will converge. Intuitive user experiences will be further advanced. Automated application provisioning and cross-application data transparency will be integrated.
More secure. Vienna will include improved security and legislative compliance functionality. Data protection and management will be extended to peripheral devices. Vienna will advance role-based computing scenarios and user-account management, and bridge the inherent conflicts between data protection and robust collaboration. It will also enable enterprise-wide data protection and permissions.
Better connected. Vienna will further enable the mobile workforce. It will deliver anywhere, anytime, any device access to data and applications. It will enable a robust ad-hoc collaboration experience. Wireless connectivity, management and security functionality will be expanded. The performance and functionality of current and emerging mobile hardware will be optimized. The multiple device sync, management and data protection capabilities in Windows will be extended. Finally, Vienna will enable flexible computing infrastructures including rich, thin and network-centric models.
Lower cost. Vienna will help businesses optimize their desktop infrastructure. It will enable seamless OS, application and data migration, and simplified PC provisioning and upgrading. It will further efforts towards non-disruptive application updating and patching. Vienna will include improved hardware- and software-based virtualization experiences. And it will expand the PC self-help and IT Pro problem resolution diagnostics in Windows.
Q: Will Windows Vienna be available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions like Vista?A: Vienna will almost certainly ship only in 64-bit versions. This is in keeping with Microsoft’s x64 migration schedule.
Q: Will Microsoft release any Windows updates between now and Vienna?A: Yes. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1, codenamed “Fiji”) will ship simultaneously with Windows Server “Longhorn” and will include a new kernel version that makes that release up to date with the kernel version in Longhorn. Fiji will almost certainly include a revision to the Media Center software in Windows Vista as well. For these reasons, we might consider Fiji a major release for a service pack. Certainly, no previous service pack has ever included a major

Will Windows 7 Be The First x64 Only Windows Client?

This is the question on everyone’s lips at the moment. There has been some differing reports on it floating around the internet, it’s hard to tell who is right until an official statement is made. And I bet it’s a hot topic in many of the meetings that will be attending right now. This previous post talks about why should we bother moving to x64 right now? And it’s true; there is no main driver in migrating to x64 for the everyday Windows user just now. In fact it’s just a headache with some applications not being supported. And while Microsoft continue to support x86, it will continue to be the same. In fact, the only reason people would feel compelled to jump to x64 just now would be a specific application requiring more than 4GB of memory space……how many applications are going to boast to being that hungry for memory?
So Microsoft will be mulling this over again….back to the drawing board. Do we make Windows 7 x86 compatible or draw the line in the sand?
I think you can bet your bottom dollar that Microsoft has this exact conversation with the banking establishments and in the end x86 Windows 7 hit’s the shelf in the coming years.
The great x64/x86 debate is quite comparable to the TCP/IP v4/v6 one. TCP/IP v6 might offer great scalability, greater this and great that. But at the end of the day it’s going to both cost a lot of people a lot of time and money to adopt it for what would seem negligible benefits on the most part. On the other side of the coin you can see why Exchange 2007 benefits from x64 architecture, it’s a resource hungry application, but until we see those kind of stakes on the desktop, don’t expect to be using those x64 instructions on your processor anytime soon….if at all.

Goodbye, ‘Vienna.’ Hello ‘Windows 7'

It’s February 1: The first “official” day of the Steven Sinofsky Windows era.
Yes, I know Senior Vice President of Windows and Windows Live Engineering Sinofsky has been working on Windows Vista and Windows Live for the past several months. His re-org stamp is already visible on a number of divisions and projects. But given that January 31 was former Windows chief Jim Allchin’s last day, I’m counting today as the first day of the new post-Allchin Windows world.
That means, for one, it’s time to move beyond the vista-themed family of codenames and begin using the more boring and sanitized ones that we’re all going to have to get used to, going forward.
First off, it’s time to stop with the “Vienna” stuff. Those in the know need to start using “Windows 7? to refer to the next full-fledged version of Windows client. (Why 7? I guess because it follows NT 6.0?)
Not so coincidentally, numbers are back in vogue — like they are on the Office side of the house, which, as Microsoft watchers have known for a while, is working on “Office 14? (not “13? — bad luck), the next version of Office.
What other changes are in store from the new Windows regime? Over in my regular Redmond Magazine column, I mention (tongue planted in cheek … sort of) a few of the ways Microsoft could and might make Windows development and testing more like that done by the Office unit.
Among my suggestions:
* Stop talking about unreleased products. Don’t share publicly a list of promised features/functionality before the product is totally locked down. Punish transgressors both inside and outside the company.
* Cease sharing any information about delivery milestones or dates. Never talking about ship targets means never having to say you’re sorry.
* Ban historical references. Anyone mentioning “WinFS,” “Cairo” or “Hailstorm” gets put in the penalty box.
Other changes you’re expecting in the brave new Windows world?

Microsoft: Vista follow-up likely in 2009

With Vista just out the door, Microsoft is now drawing up plans to deliver its follow-up client operating system by the end of 2009, according to the executive in charge of building the product’s core components.
That would be a much faster turn-around than Vista, which shipped more than five years after Windows XP, but Vista was exceptional, said Ben Fathi, corporate vice president of development with Microsoft’s Windows Core Operating System Division this week at the RSA Conference in San Francisco.
Microsoft originally planned for its XP follow-up to include a number of radical changes to Windows, including a new file system and a reinvented user interface, but after the company’s products were hit by widespread worm outbreaks in 2003, Microsoft redirected almost its entire engineering effort to locking down Windows with the XP Service Pack 2 release.
“We put Longhorn on the back burner for awhile,” Fathi said. “Then when we came back to it, we realized that there were incremental things that we wanted to do, and significant improvements that we wanted to make in Vista that we couldn’t deliver in one release.”
Vista shipped about two-and-a-half years after XP SP 2, and Vista’s follow-up is expected to take about the same amount of time, according to Fathi. “You can think roughly two, two-and-a-half years is a reasonable time frame that our partners can depend on and can work with,” he said. “That’s a good timeframe for refresh.”
That time line would put Microsoft’s next client operating system out by the end of 2009.
Last year, Microsoft said that the code name for this Vista follow-up is Vienna, but Fathi said he could not disclose the current name. “We’ve been told not to use it publicly,” he said.
So what will be the coolest new feature in Vienna?
According to Fathi, that’s still being worked out. “We’re going to look at a fundamental piece of enabling technology. Maybe its hypervisors, I don’t know what it is,” he said. “Maybe it’s a new user interface paradigm for consumers.”
“It’s too early for me to talk about it,” he added. “But over the next few months I think you’re going to start hearing more and more.”

What’s holding you back from going down the 64-bit road?

A week ago George Ou made a very good post which took an objective look at choosing between x86 32-bit edition or x64 64-bit edition of Windows Vista. It’s a good post and if you’ve not read it yet, I encourage you to do so. But there’s one point that George didn’t consider - why aren’t computer users who could run a 64-bit OS (that is, they have drivers for everything in place already) not already doing so?
I think that the reason can be summed up by two words - why bother.
Seriously, while there might be advantages to making the leap from a x86 32-bit operating system to an x64 64-bit OS for servers or certain specialized workstations, for the average desktop user, there’s little or no advantage. Sure, you can boost the amount of RAM that you can utilize from 4GB all the way up to 128GB, but how many desktop or notebook users need more than 4GB of RAM?
On a side note, I’d suggest that for best performance that you double the amount of RAM that you fit into a system that’s going to run a 64-bit OS, so if you’re been used to running Vista 32-bit with 1GB of RAM, boost that to 2GB when running a 64-bit OS.
Nope, while the 64-bit road is open to all that have the right hardware (and compatible drivers), but there’s little in the way of incentive to take it. While all your existing hardware might be compatible, you never know when you’re going to pick up a scanner or printer that’s not compatible, and then you have some serious headaches.
But (there’s always a but), even if you’re not planning on making the jump to 64-bit right now, it’s time to start planning for the future. There’s already a good chance that the next version of Windows (Vienna, Windows 7, whatever you want to call it) will ship as 64-bit only so slowly eliminating hardware that doesn’t have 64-bit drivers might be a good idea (although if take-up of 64-bit Vista remains low, and hardware manufacturers continue to ignore x64, Vienna might also come in 32- and 64-bit flavors after all).
Oh, and it’s also worth bearing in mind that this isn’t something that only Windows users need to think about. 64-bit Linux distros are widespread. The 64-bit desktop PC is certainly coming, it’s just hard to know when.
Thoughts? Are you already using a 64-bit OS on desktop systems? Do you have any plans to make the switch? Are you eliminating hardware that has 32-bit only drivers in preparation for future migration?

Microsoft: Windows 7 to Include Multitouch Features

Microsoft is finally opening up about when Windows 7 will ship, but the company continues to share just a few, yet tantalizing details of what the eagerly anticipated OS update will be all about.
The latest tidbit to drop is multitouch interface support. At the Wall St. Journal's D Conference Tuesday evening in Carlsbad, Calif., company founder and chief software architect Bill Gates and chief executive Steve Ballmer are scheduled to unveil a laptop with a touchscreen that accepts multiple, simultaneous touches. The effect is quite reminiscent of what's possible with the world's most popular, commercially available gesture-based interface device: the iPhone .
Officially, Windows 7 is scheduled to ship three years after the general availability of Windows Vista , according to Microsoft. Vista's business editions launched on Nov. 30, 2006, which would mean the software could ship as early as that date in 2009, with a beta release in advance. Vista's editions for the home market launched Jan. 29, 2007.

Windows 7 Already a Threat to Vista

In case you hadn't noticed, the massive weight of interest has now almost completely shifted from Microsoft Windows Vista to the largely vaporware Windows 7.
This is testament to how royally screwed up Microsoft's Vista go-to-market plan has become. On the one hand, it insists that Vista is a huge success, with tons of sold licenses and happy customers. On the other, the company recently offered Windows XP Home as a low-cost PC OS. Clearly, there's a disconnect. Now, even more damaging to Vista, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer just used an important tech conference to preview major innovations on Windows 7.
If Windows Vista were a child, it would surely feel hurt, neglected, and stunned by the fact that its parents are favoring its still-unborn sibling, Windows 7.
The level of Windows 7 interest should be cause for significant concern in Redmond. Yet, I don't see so much hand-wringing as I do schizophrenia. There's the Vista group, which is gamely marching forward, trying to convince people that Vista is the operating system that they want and that they'll truly love it if they only give it a chance. Then there's the Window 7 group, which is populated, naturally, by some of the very same people. They're telling you how much better Windows 7 will be.
Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer are also guilty of doublespeak. Each has been quoted extolling the virtues and success of Vista.

windows-7-to-get-integrated-touch-features

Regardless of how Tablet PCs have actually done in the marketplace, Microsoft has always been a staunch proponent of touch interfaces, and it looks like the next version of Windows, currently under the codename Windows 7, will bundle in multi-touch features like those found in the iPhone and Microsoft's own Surface. The news comes from Microsoft engineer Hilton Locke, who blogged about Dell's multi-touch capable (but not enabled) Latitude XT earlier today, and added, "if you are impressed by the 'touch features' in the iPhone, you'll be blown away by what's coming in Windows 7." Locke went on to imply that it's been challenging selling touch to manufacturers, saying "Now if only we could convince more OEMs that Windows Touch Technology is going to drive their sales." That's a surprise to us -- that Big Ass Table demo pretty much sells itself, don't you think?

albatron-demos-22-inch-multi-touch-screen-for-windows-7

We didn't think it'd take too terribly long to make it happen, but Albatron is taking Microsoft's heed and is already demonstrating a prototype 22-inch monitor with multi-touch, intended for use with whatever Windows 7 will eventually come to be called. The early verdict on the 1680 x 1050 display? TG Daily says it "works much better than we expected," but we said the same thing about Surface when it debuted last year -- so maybe it simply works as well as it should.

microsoft-warns-hardware-makers-to-begin-windows-7-testing-asap

It may not even have a firm release date just yet, but it looks like Microsoft is already taking a pretty hard line on Windows 7, with it reportedly now warning hardware makers to begin testing their devices on the OS as soon as the first beta becomes available or risk not qualifying for its certified compatibility program. As Information Week points out, that move is likely being done in order to avoid the mess stirred up when so-called Vista-capable systems went on sale in advance of Vista's release, many of which, as we all know, turned out to be anything but.

microsoft-on-track-to-release-windows-7-multi-touch-sdk-in-october

Microsoft may have only offered a glimpse of its promised multi-touch support in Windows 7 at D6 earlier this week, but the company apparently already has some of its longer term plans lined up, with it reportedly on track to release its multi-touch SDK at its Professional Developers' Conference in October of this year. Details on the SDK are otherwise expectedly light at the moment, however, with Microsoft only going so far as to say that its session at PDC will "highlight the new multi-touch gesture APIs and explain how you can leverage them in your applications."

asus-and-microsoft-working-an-eee-targeted-version-of-windows-7

So now that the nine-inch Eee is officially available with Windows XP pre-installed, people are wondering the obvious -- why XP and not Vista, since XP is being discontinued in June and Vista can kinda-sorta be made to run on an Eee? The answer, direct from Microsoft, is both obvious and a little surprising: Given the Eee's "other requirements," Asus and Microsoft "couldn't go the Vista route," presumably because the Eee doesn't really have the horsepower for it. Sure, but what caught our interest was that Microsoft is "in close discussions with Asus [regarding] how to take that forward... in regards to the Windows 7 Europe timeframe." Windows 7, you'll recall, has that lean new kernel, which would presumably make building a stripped-down version specifically for Eee-class machines easier -- but the last we heard, Windows 7 wasn't due until at least mid-2009 (and possibly not until 2011), so either Microsoft is planning to continue shipping XP after June or Windows 7 is coming much earlier than we thought. Our money is on XP continuing to soldier on, but here's hoping.

This-could-be-the-first-video-footage-of-windows-7

Obviously a lot of people cried fake when those screenshots purporting to show Windows 7 Ultimate popped up -- possibly because they looked a lot like rebadged Vista screens -- so the blogger who originally posted the images has followed up with a video for proof. And we do have to say, if this is fake, someone put a hell of a lot of work into pulling it off, from creating a new bootup screen to hacking the source code to adding fresh Media Center options. ThinkNext tells us that this release -- known as Milestone 1 -- expires in May of this year, although if Redmond and its team of crack Enemy of the State-types have anything to say about it, this particular blog will not be getting another preview copy next time around. Video after the break.

Microsoft shows off "snippet" of Windows 7 at D6, reveals multi-touch support

Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer got on stage at D6 with Walt and Kara to talk... Microsoft, of course. While the company is still being rather coy about Windows 7 -- some have blamed loose lips early on in Vista development for saddling the OS with too high of expectations and making things difficult for developers -- they were nice enough to show off what Ballmer called "the smallest snippet" of Windows 7. The big reveal was multi-touch support, which utilizes technology developed by the Surface team. The taskbar seems to have been reworked a bit, and the demo was running live on a Dell Latitude XT tablet. Apparently Microsoft is reworking the whole user interface with a multitouch experience in mind. Steve reiterated the "three years after Vista" mantra for availability. Not exactly earth-shattering, but we'll take what we can get at this point.

Windows 7 to get new touch features

It’s still early in the Windows 7 development process, but it sounds like new touch features already have made it onto the user-interface feature list.

Hilton Locke, who is with Microsoft’s Windows Shell team, in blogging about the newly introduced Dell Latitude XT Tablet PC, mentioned Windows 7’s planned touch support in a post this week:

“All I will say that if you are impressed by the ‘touch features’ in the iPhone, you’ll be blown away by what’s coming in Windows 7. Now if only we could convince more OEMs that Windows Touch Technology is going to drive their sales.”

Not being a Tablet PC fanatic, this touch UI revelation doesn’t do much for me. But it did get me thinking about a point made by a Mac-user friend of mine recently.

His theory: Neither Windows Vista nor Apple’s Leopard interfaces have met with universal user approval for the simple reason that Microsoft and Apple are trying too hard to emulate each other’s UI. Micorsoft tried too hard to appeal to users interested in a Mac-like experience, and Apple was too intent on making Leopard appealing to Windows switchers, my Mac-using chum posited. The result? Neither vendor made its core constituency happy.

Screen Shots

Don't Hold Your Breath for a New Windows 7 Kernel

Just in case you were holding your breath for a new Windows 7 kernel, you might as well exhale. Microsoft has infirmed speculations that the successor of Windows Vista would deliver a new kernel. Rather than revolutionary, the core of Windows 7 will be evolutionary building on the heart of Vista. One of the biggest arguments against the genuine nature of Windows 7 Milestone 1 leaked details was the fact that the release featured a kernel version similar to that of Vista. Microsoft now only provides a sneak peek at the direction it is heading with the

Windows 7 kernel, as well as pointing out what is the starting point. "Contrary to some speculation, Microsoft is not creating a new kernel for Windows 7. Rather, we are refining the kernel architecture and componentization model introduced in Windows Vista. While these changes will increase our engineering agility, they will not impact the user experience or reduce application or hardware compatibility," revealed Christopher Flores, Director Windows Communications. The confusion around a potential new kernel for Windows 7 was started by a presentation delivered by Microsoft Distinguished Engineer Eric Traut in 2007. Traut informed that Microsoft was building the MinWin kernel for Windows 7, looking to cut as much as possible the dependencies between the core and the rest of the operating system and to isolate carve the smallest standalone component of Windows. Mark Russinovich, Microsoft Technical Fellow explained later on that the Redmond company was not diverging from the Windows Vista kernel in a way that would irremediably affect the environment of hardware and software products designed for Windows, but that it was simply taking the core to its next stage in evolution.

Windows 7 Server Dog-Fooded in Redmond

Following the releases of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, Microsoft has moved onward to the next iterations of both its client and server operating systems. And just as Windows 7 is the successor of Vista, so Windows 7 Server is designed to be the next version of Windows Server, and to replace Windows Server 2008. The Redmond company is completely mute on Windows 7 but it did manage to point to 2010 for a potential general availability date, talk about the MinWin core. Not the same is valid about Windows 7 Server. Details on the next generation Windows Server platform are even scarcer than those for Windows 7, but the operating system is already dog-fooded over at Microsoft. On June 4h and 5, 2008, in Redmond, Washington, Microsoft is hosting the Windows Rally Technologies, an event where the company will demonstrate, among others, Windows 7 Server. The Windows Rally Partner Summit held in Building 20, Microsoft Main Campus, according to the official schedule which can be downloaded straight from Microsoft (via UX Evangelist). Microsoft failed to provide a great deal of details, and the participants are unlikely to share anything on the Windows 7 Server demonstration since all the partners are under a strict non-disclosure agreement. However, the main demo will focus on the Business Scanning feature of Windows 7 Server. However, one thing is clear at this point in time, along with Windows 7, Microsoft is also dog-fooding Windows 7 Server, while also serving the operating system to its closest partners. "This session will introduce participants to the Business Scanning feature which is planned for Windows 7 Server. An overview of the technology will be presented, including the required protocols, Active Directory, Security and Windows Server Manager integration. The scanning functional model, theory of operation and the usage scenarios will be discussed. A development requirements overview will be presented to IHVs to show how MFPs can interact with Business Scanning," Microsoft revealed.

The Roots of Windows 7 Are Buried Deep into Windows Vista

Windows Vista is an operating system defining of how Microsoft will shape Windows 7. According to Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, the way to Windows 7 started from Windows Vista and went on to also integrate the evolution delivered with Windows Server 2008. In this context, Microsoft regards Vista as the foundation on which it built not only Windows Server 2008 but that would also be at the basis of Windows 7.

The intimate connection between Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 was made clear when new builds of the client and server platforms were released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008, labeled as Service Pack 1. The Redmond company explained at that time that the code base for Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 SP1 is virtually the same. This synchronization strategy between server and client operating systems will continue as Microsoft moves forward with the releases of Windows 7 Server and Windows 7.But for the time being, Microsoft indicated that the architectural investments it introduced with Vista RTM, taking one step further with SP1 and Windows Server 2008, will again reach a new level of evolution with Windows 7. In terms of subsystems of the operating system including graphics, audio and storage, expect Microsoft to rather refine the Windows Vista experience than introduce something completely new. "Windows Vista established a very solid foundation, particularly on subsystems such as graphics, audio, and storage. Windows Server 2008 was built on that foundation and Windows 7 will be as well," explained Christopher Flores, Director Windows Communications. In this respect, consumers that failed to bite the bullet with Windows Vista, even after the RTM and upgrade from a previous version of the platform, are guaranteed a taste of the product with Windows 7.

Microsoft to Give a Taste of Windows 7 this Week

Despite speculation and forecasts that Microsoft was going to adopt a new strategy for Windows development as far as future releases go, with a strong focus placed on modularization, the company promised that Windows Vista would not be the last of its kind. Windows 7, the next monolithic iteration of the Windows client, is already available to Microsoft's closest partners for testing as a Milestone 1 release, with M2 up next. But, at the sam...

Microsoft Confirms Windows 7 for 2010 – No Word on Windows 7 M2

Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 7 is right on track for release in 2010. Concomitantly with the leaked details associated with Windows 7 Milestone 1 dropped by the Redmond company to select partners in January 2008, a potential timetable for the availability of the successor of Windows Vista was also made public. According to the leaked information on the next iteration of the Windows platform, having just reached M1, the final version of Windows 7 was to be wrapped up the end of 2009.

Officially, the Redmond company has only been saying that Windows 7 development would take an estimated three-year timeframe. However, Microsoft always failed to specify the moment when the three-year timeframe started. The debut of Windows 7 development was indeed connected with the release of Windows Vista, but this aspect only contributed to the confusion because the latest Windows client was launched to businesses in November 2006 and to the general public in January 2007. So in this context, the finalization of Windows 7 could just as easily be aimed for the end of 2009, as well as 2010. Well, this is no longer the case. Microsoft explained that it would deliver Windows 7 three years after the consumers launch of Vista. "We are currently in the planning stages for Windows 7 and development is scoped to three years from Windows Vista Consumer GA. The specific release date will be determined once the company meets its quality bar for release," a Microsoft spokesperson revealed to Softpedia via email. Windows Vista Consumer GA means nothing more than the general availability of the operating system. In this regard, Microsoft has merely reconfirmed what it has in fact said since mid 2007, that Windows 7 is planned for 2010. Recently, the Redmond company has delivered a build of Windows 7 for review to the U.S. antitrust regulators. This was made public via the "Joint status report on Microsoft's compliance with the final judgments."I contacted Microsoft and asked whether the new version of Windows 7 was still M1 or if the company has reached Milestone 2 (M2). The leaked timetable for Windows 7 had M1 set to expire in May, and M2 to be delivered in April/May. Outside of the confirmation quoted above, Microsoft did not comment on Windows 7 M1, M2 or the potential antitrust issues that would be generated by the connecting of Windows 7 with Windows Live Wave 3. Update: correction - Windows 7 M1 is said to expire in May 2008, not March, with M2 expected in April/May.

Features

Windows 7 has reached the Milestone 1 (M1) stage and has been made available to key partners. According to reports sent to TG Daily, the build adds support for systems using multiple heterogeneous graphics cards and a new version of Windows Media Center. New features in Milestone 1 also reportedly include Gadgets being integrated into Windows Explorer, a Gadget for Windows Media Center, the ability to visually pin and unpin items from the Start Menu and Recycle Bin, improved media features, a new XPS Viewer, and the CalculatorProgrammer and Statistics modes along with unit conversion. accessory is multi-line featuring.

Reports indicate that a feedback tool included in Milestone 1 lists some coming features: the ability to store Internet Explorer settings on a Windows LivePaint and WordPad, and a 10 minute install process.^[21] In addition, improved network connection tools might be included.

A new feature in build 6574, Windows Health Center, allows the user to monitor all of their PC's health problems, and concerns in one place. It allows turning User Account Control on and off, and monitoring 3rd party anti-virus programs, firewalls, etc

Focus

Microsoft's Ben Fathi claimed on February 9, 2007 that the focus on the operating system was still being worked out, and could merely hint at some possibilities:

“

We're going to look at a fundamental piece of enabling technology. Maybe it's hypervisors. I don't know what it is" [...] "Maybe it's a new user interface paradigm for consumers.

”

Bill Gates, in an interview with Newsweek, suggested that the next version of Windows would "be more user-centric." When asked to clarify what he meant, Gates said:

“

That means that right now when you move from one PC to another, you've got to install apps on each one, do upgrades on each one. Moving information between them is very painful. We can use Live Services to know what you're interested in. So even if you drop by a [public] kiosk or somebody else's PC, we can bring down your home page, your files, your fonts, your favorites and those things. So that's kind of the user-centric thing that Live Services can enable. [Also,] in Vista, things got a lot better with [digital] ink and speech, but by the next release there will be a much bigger bet. Students won't need textbooks; they can just use these tablet devices. Parallel computing is pretty important for the next release. We'll make it so that a lot of the high-level graphics will be just built into the operating system. So we've got a pretty good outline.

”

Later Gates also said that Windows 7 will also focus on performance improvements:

“

We're hard at work, I would say, on the next version, which we call Windows 7. I'm very excited about the work being done there. The ability to be lower power, take less memory, be more efficient, and have lots more connections up to the mobile phone, so those scenarios connect up well to make it a great platform for the best gaming that can be done, to connect up to the thing being done out on the Internet, so that, for example, if you have two personal computers, that your files automatically are synchronized between them, and so you don't have a lot of work to move that data back and forth.

”

History

In about 2000 Microsoft started the planning to follow up Windows XP and its server counterpart Windows Server 2003 (both codenamed Whistler) with a major new release of Windows that was codenamed Blackcomb (both codenames refer to the Whistler-Blackcomb resort). This new version was at that time scheduled for a 2005 release.^{[citation needed]}

Major features were planned for Blackcomb, including an emphasis on searching and querying data and an advanced storage system named WinFS to enable such scenarios. In this context, a feature mentioned by Bill Gates for Blackcomb was "a pervasive typing line that will recognize the sentence that [the user is] typing in."

Later Blackcomb was delayed and an interim minor release, codenamed "Longhorn", was announced for a 2003 release. By the middle of 2003, however, Longhorn had acquired some of the features originally intended for Blackcomb, including WinFS, the Desktop Window Manager, and new versions of system components built on the .NET Framework. After the 2003 "Summer of Worms", where three major viruses -- Blaster, Sobig, and Welchia -- exploited flaws in Windows operating systems within a short time period, Microsoft changed their development priorities, putting some of Longhorn's major development work on hold in order to develop new service packs for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 that included a number of new security and safety features. Development of Windows Vista was also "reset" in September 2004 as a result of concerns about the quality of code that was being introduced to the operating system. The eventual result of this was that WinFS, the Next Generation Secure Computing Base, and other features seen in Longhorn builds were deemed "not ready" for wide release, and as such did not appear in Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008.

As major feature work on Windows Vista wound down in early 2006, Blackcomb was renamed Vienna. However, following the release of Windows Vista, it was confirmed by Microsoft on July 20, 2007 that "the internal name for the next version of the Windows Client OS" is Windows 7, a name that had been reported by some sources months before.

Windows 7

Windows 7 formerly known as Blackcomb and Vienna) is the working name for the next major version of Microsoft Windows as the successor of Windows Vista. Microsoft has announced that it is "scoping Windows 7 development to a three-year timeframe", and that "the specific release date will ultimately be determined by meeting the quality bar." Windows 7 is expected to be released sometime in 2010. The client versions of Windows 7 will ship in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. A server variant, codenamed Windows Server 7, is also under development.

Microsoft is maintaining a policy of silence concerning discussion of plans and aspirations for Windows 7 as they focus on the release and marketing of Windows Vista, stating that Microsoft does not want to promise features and then fail to deliver, as happened with Windows Vista Ultimate, though some early details of various core operating system features have emerged. As a result, little is known about the feature set, though public presentations from company officials have disseminated information about some features. Leaked information from people to whom Milestone 1 (M1) of Windows 7 was shipped also provides some insight into the feature set.