Back from the PDC…next up, WinHEC

This has been an amazingly special week for the Windows 7 team.  We’re all incredibly appreciative of the reception of Windows 7 this week at the PDC.  Thank you!

All of us on the team have been closely watching the news reports and blogs of those who have been “kicking the tires” of the Windows 7 pre-beta.  The reception has been fantastic and we’re humbled by the excitement and enthusiasm for the release.  We know we have a ton of work ahead of us to get to beta and then the path to RTM, and the reception has definitely given us an extra special motivation (though we were already pretty motivated).

Next week is our conference dedicated to the hardware partners in the ecosystem we have talked about.  Called WinHEC (Windows Hardware Engineering Conference), we’ll have another series of sessions and keynotes.  Jon DeVaan will be taking the lead as we dive into the details of “fundamentals” and the work we are doing with some of the many partners involved in Windows 7.  WinHEC also has a strong focus on Windows Server 2008 R2 (the server built off the Windows 7 kernel).  These sessions will all be available online as well.

So with all the shows we’re taking a short break from the blog as the folks that do the presenting are also the writers (myself included).

Below is a list of all the sessions on Windows 7 from the PDC.  Please take some time to have a look as the information is very detailed for sure.  How about using the comments on this post to ask questions of the sessions that you’d like to see more details on down the road?  That would be really helpful for us to target our posts.

Many of you have written asking about the beta and how to sign up or download it.  The best source for information on that will be the site https://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7 which our product marketing team owns and will keep up to date as the beta information is available.  Also note that the Windows Vista blog which is where you will see announcements / news has been updated to reflect the inclusion of Windows 7.  This blog is now known as the Windows Blog.

One of the very fun moments for me at the PDC was an “Open Space” session on the floor of the “Big Room” which was an open-microphone discussion.  Channel9 captured this and might be a fun watch.  See https://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Charles/Steven-Sinofsky-at-the-PDC2008-Open-Space/

For those of you interested in the Windows 7 APIs and what’s new for developers there is an overview document that you might find valuable.  See Windows 7 Developer Guide on MSDN.

Thank you very much for all the emails you have sent.  I always share them with the team and really appreciate it.

See you on this blog soon enough!

--Steven

Comments

• Anonymous
  November 01, 2008
  I've watched windows seven in the keynote, and you've done some pretty good work there, i specially like the new "taskbar"... anyway, i havent checked those presentations (the links you provided) yet but i will and get back to you... Thanks Steven!

• Anonymous
  November 01, 2008
  I also enjoyed the Windows 7 presentation.  Very exciting!!  I'd also like to use this space to make a couple UI recommendations for W7.  Transparencies, you already use it but you should use it a little more.  For example the jump start list or the wireless network list that pops up from the taskbar.  Those would look better if there was a little transparency in them not a lot just a little maybe 20-25%.  Also I'm not much of a fan of the glass border around windows, it's fine on bigger windows but on small ones it looks funky.  Again the jump start list and the wireless network list would look better to me if it didn't have that glass border or if you made the glass border less prominent.  I just think it's too thick for such a small window.  

• Anonymous
  November 01, 2008
  Mr. Steven CONGRATULATION , WINDOWS 7 is ROCK!!! Congratulation TEAM Congratulation Microsoft :D thanks for all your work

• Anonymous
  November 01, 2008
  It does seem to be a bit of a trend that a lot of space is wasted with the newer UIs in the form of glassy effects, which is something I've noticed in the Windows Live beta. It looks nice, but too much space is wasted in the form of graphical niceties and, well, spacing. Windows 7 looks like it will be awesome, I just hope the engineers realize when they should concede aesthetics for functionality.

• Anonymous
  November 01, 2008
  Thanks for the links! And congratulations, that's what I call CHANGE :) Can't wait to play with the new UI! Idea for the dockable thing: please make it so that you can choose how much of width you want your docked app to be; for example I like to have an explorer windows on my right with 1/4 or 1/3 of the screen width (half is too much). An option menu with a slider could make it easily. Keep up the good work.

• Anonymous
  November 01, 2008
  Hi Steven and Windows 7 Team, Congratulations on the initial discussion and presentations at PDC - Windows 7 looks impressive, and more - the code, the team, the development process all feels "tighter" than before. You haven't discussed any virtualisation technologies such as App-V and whether Windows 7 brings any additional benefits here - might be a good one for a future blog entry?

• Anonymous
  November 01, 2008
  Thanks for the update on where to find more info on becoming a beta tester - I've bookmarked the page and will keep an eye on it for updates ;) The presentations highlight some very positive changes, so I'm looking forward to trying it out once you're at the public beta stage. As with the above commenter, I'd also be interested to see more info on visualisation in W7 if there's a chance to cover it in a future blog post.

• Anonymous
  November 01, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 01, 2008
  I would really like to know more about the system requirements of Windows 7 and the different versions that will be on offer. I sure hope it will not be as complicated as the Vista offerings.

• Anonymous
  November 01, 2008
  @Mr. Steven in this video  " Windows 7: Introducing Direct2D and DirectWrite " effect CD Cover is COOL http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=catturanq3.jpg In video 62 Min. this is WMP 12 ?

• Anonymous
  November 02, 2008
  Good work! I watched the W7 keynote...I'm looking forward to the beta. Any chance of multi-monitor support for the taskbar? I know that you had a blog post which mentioned it so I'm assuming it'll be included in some release. What about something like 'Spaces' which OSX and Linux have?

• Anonymous
  November 02, 2008
  Spaces? i remember power toys of XP Virtual Desktop Manager , and Desktops 1.0 for Vista http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cc817881.aspx

• Anonymous
  November 02, 2008
  One thing that maybe won't change by default but would be nice to have it customizable. The window frames are too thick. 7 px frame width is too much on 3 side. Much worse 62px on top! Max 2 px on side and and lets say 30 on top would be enough. In general Windows 7 should be very careful with resources   whether it is memory or desktop space.

• Anonymous
  November 02, 2008
  Windows 7 looking real good, even in pre-beta state:^).  Hopefully the performance is there when the final RTM is released.  I'm really interested in the Direct2D and DirectWrite interfaces.  Is there any place I can get more info on these additions to DirectX? Tbanks, Matt.

• Anonymous
  November 02, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 02, 2008
  OK, my comment seems to have disappeared, so let me take it on portions, hopefully getting all of it delivered that way. Very exciting presentation (the first one)... I still haven't watched the all, but if they are as half as exciting and jaw dropping as the first one, it's a very interesting set of presentations surely. I want to make some notes I've seen in comments here before and in the presentation.

1. Windows... it appeared they are gone and replaced by thumbnails in the appropriate quick launch item. I think this is too much of a risk to take with the task bar. Users (me included) are too used to having Windows in the task bar and click from there. Having them be over the respective quick launch item is then counter intuitive. In addition, I may not be completely sure what was the program, but know the window title (e.g. did I opened "Yahoo!" in IE or Firefox?). It will be nice if windows were also visible on the right of the quick launch as is now + are arrangeable as the quick launch buttons are and have been already. Doing that will also enable custom (user based) task grouping of windows. For example, I may arrange all of my entertainment apps on the right (WMP, ICQ, IE with "latest MP3s") and all of my development tools (VS, IE with "MSDN" opened, etc.). With the current model, I'm forced to think in terms of "application" not in terms of "task". There are cases when I do want to think in terms of apps though, so having both models around is the best option in my opinion.

• Anonymous
  November 02, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 02, 2008
  ...continuing from part 2 (last one)...

3. Learning center. No matter what you do, there will always be people who can't intuitively grasp your UI until they read about it and/or spend a whole day with it and/or get it presented by a live person. You can help this type of people by providing a place in the welcome center for them to go to and read about the new stuff. No, not just the major features, but the "minor" UI improvements and what are the new equivalents of old things. An example - for my tech savvy father, having to first go to the "Network and Sharing Center" is counter intuitive. He's used to just right click on "Status" and see/edit the settings from there. We're (both) managing a small network, so we have to look and alter these settings often. For me, going to the center is fine, as it also shows some additional information which we previously had to reverse engineer by performing various pings, namely, whether we're connected to the internet or just the local network, and also what networking features are enabled (sharing, discovery, etc.). It appears I'm one of the few though, as other colleagues (from other firms that is) also say the same thing as my father. Yet, when I show them the equivalent (after going to the center, click "status", or if the network is not connected, right click on that second last item, and you'll get to the control panel place) they seem "relieved" and start to appreciate the new model more. If you can give these sort of instructions up front, you'll certainly save savvy users a lot of time to learn Windows 7, and thus show it to the less savvy users (who don't ever bother reading anything anyway). Hope you can comment on one or more of those in a future blog post. Thanks.

• Anonymous
  November 02, 2008
  I watched keynotes and sessions all weekend long. On a notebook running Windows 7 (Build 6801). The quality of the build is stunnig! And I liked what I saw in the videos very much. You're doing a great job - everything is better than I was expecting. Forget all comments, just keep doing what you're doing. Even the usually boring keynotes were really interesting. Thanks, Steven and all the others. But I could really use a Windows 7 activation key... I "lost" mine :)

• Anonymous
  November 02, 2008
  I'd like to "cancel" my first comment (almost). I watched another presentation in which I saw the real quick launch in more detail. So what I thought is quick lanch were really the Window groups. Still, are the window reordering and thumbnails available even with window grouping off? Hope they are. I never really liked this application grouping, exactly because I group my Windows based on tasks most of the time.

• Anonymous
  November 02, 2008
  Winhec go in streaming like PDC?

• Anonymous
  November 02, 2008
  The new show desktop feature is nice, but has an important problem.  As implemented, it shows your windows as outlines, but leaves your gadgets visible.

1. Why do you show the window outlines?  Is that useful?  If you have lots of windows open, that could make it difficult to see what is below.
2. Leaving the gadgets there makes it very difficult to see the icons below.  (Can you click on icons through the window outlines?)  You'll have to place your icons (or gadgets) in such a way that they never overlap.
3. Autoresizing windows when the mouse hits the side of the screen is likely to cause lots of problems for people who didn't want their windows to stay on the screen and be resized.  What if you just want to move your window part way offscreen and not dodge the sides of the screen?  That takes a lot more work!
4. Remove the word Windows or Windows Live from the front of every program.  It makes it hard to find programs when every program begins with the same one or two words, and it provides no useful information.  We know we're running Windows.  Really.
5. Power options: balanced vs power saver: It's clear that power saver will save me power, but what is balanced,exactly?  Does that mean that it saves me some power?  That it saves me no power?  What if I want to run my system as fast as possible right now even if it drains my battery faster?
6. Previews: You have a split pane between a preview and the files being displayed.  Consider that this may not be the best layout for displaying previews.  You'll notice that there is lots of vertical space above and below the thing being previewed that isn't being used.  If you rearrange things a bit, you could show a much larger preview with the same number of folders (or more folders) visible at the same time.  For example, perhaps the preview could be in the bottom right corner.  That would leave almost the entire window space available to see files too.
7. Not so fond of the seafoam icon color for the notification area icons.  Perhaps we could choose the colors of those icons?  As they are, I'd be tempted to hide them so that I didn't see the seafoam all the time.
8. On notifications - there are a few programs (Outlook and the power warning come to mind) that display an icon that does...nothing.  There's no indication of why the icon has appeared.  Sometimes, there is even a pop noise, but no indication as to why.
9. Turning off individual icon notifications - awesome!  Some programs (HP's Radia client comes to mind) change the name of their icon all the time so you can't do this.  (Under XP, there are icons that I simply can't even hide!)  You should be able to turn off all icons for programs, not just specific icons.
10. It would be great to be able to magnify individual programs, rather than the entire screen.  I'm not talking about magnifier type magnification.  But maybe just scaling of certain programs.
11. I like that the cheesy corporate curvy mesmerize your mind lines have disappeared.  This looks much nicer.
12. Display: You should remember screen resolutions, icon positions, window arrangements, etc. so that when you change the displays you are connected to, you automatically restore the settings that you had before.  When using multiple monitors, I'm always fighting with Windows to keep things arranged as I want.
13. Icons: Please let me keep the trash where I want.  Arrange icons shouldn't move the trash unless I want it to.  ie. Separate arranging of special folder icons from files so that I can keep things where I want.
14. Device stage seems like a way for companies to market to me, from what I've read about it.  I hope this isn't the case...
15. Ribbons: I love the ribbon, but please be sure to place icons near text that actually relates to their action.  Example) Outlook 2007's encrypt mail icon is so close to text for another function that I have a hard time finding it, because it looks like the icon is related to something else.
16. Can you add blocking of per program outgoing connections too?  Some programs should never be allowed to access anything!
17. Homegroup: It looks like I'm either sharing all pictures/documents/videos/etc, or nothing at all.  Better sharing granularity is really important here.
18. Credential manager: how are credentials protected?  Are they AES encrypted?  Are they stored as plaintext?

• Anonymous
  November 02, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 02, 2008
  Part 3:

• File content search (in vista pre-sp1) doesn't work. Does it in sp1/2? Anyway, make it more like XPs file content search, or just better than XPs.
• The 'add font' dialog should be upgraded. I'm sure you've heard this before.
• cmd.exe should be replaced by powershell.
• Some way to show how much space each folder in the current view uses. I had to develop my own quick'n'dirty implementation: http://www.zipdot.net/DirectorySize.java
• Include donkey.bas, nibbles.bas and gorrilas.bas in windows 7 ported to .net in their original form (and maybe new versions as well if time is on your side). Yes, I'm serious. Do it, today. Some people would love windows 7 JUST because of that.
• A new sound recorder. The vista one in vista doesn't really cut it. I want to be able do to what I could in sndrec32.exe. Speed up stuff and save in whatever format I like.

• Anonymous
  November 02, 2008
  Part 1:

• RDP screen as an extended desktop!
• Some way to better manage "nested" RDP sessions. Like when computer 1 is connected to computer 2 that in turn is connected to computer 3.
• Text difference tools, like som random diff app I found: Altova DiffDog.
• Get some sort of Quick View back.
• Ncurses, ansi.sys stuff in .net for cool retro console apps
• File copy queueing and pausing. Just add an advanded-button to the copy-gui.

• Anonymous
  November 02, 2008
  I don't understand why people are saying that Aero isn't the default theme. I have installed Vista on many different PCs and as long as they have hardware that can run Aero, it is the default.

• Anonymous
  November 02, 2008
  @UserOfManyOperatingSystems: Device Stage is not about marketing messages. Check out the Device Stage description and screen shot at http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/win7_preview_04.asp (It's near the end of the page). From what I read there, it sounds like it will be a useful feature.

• Anonymous
  November 02, 2008
  @WindowsFanboy Normally, that would be right. However, Windows can't know if the video card is capable enough up front. It needs drivers for that (or the video card must be exactly one that is recognized). So, until you install drivers and refresh your systems' grade, you get the "Vista Basic" theme, which is essentially Aero without transparancy and animations (and Flip 3D, and thumbnails, etc.). Users that don't bother installing drivers unless they're asked to are the same users that won't bother changing the default theme and/or refresh their grade.

• Anonymous
  November 02, 2008
  The new taskbar looks good. I still prefer the old way, but the task group is no longer as bad as XP, so I will give it a try. One thing comes to my mind. Language bar. What about language bar? It is one of the most annoying thing I have to deal with in my task bar. The width changes based on different language and its feature settings. It is far from consistent. Would you be replacing language bar with Jump List and or even buttons in the thumbnail window? And could there be an app icon I can hovor and show all my opened windows? The icon will show how many windows I have opened too. You know. Like traditional taskbar feature turned into one app icon and use thumbnail for traditional global task switching. At least this will help me adapt the new taskbar. Also I think such app is kinda cool. The new taskbar is in the right direction. Good job guys.

• Anonymous
  November 02, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 03, 2008
  Watched the presentation and everything looked awesome! You are definatly heading in the right direction! On a side note though: You've made loads of great changes to the taskbar / startmenu, but I've yet to hear anything regarding the start menu being able to span across monitors. Will you guys work this feature into W7?

• Anonymous
  November 03, 2008
  @yeehaamcgee Yes - it didn't worked initially because it was created after Vista was shipped. My point exactly. And until you connect your PC to the internet and wait enough for the update to be installed (assuming there IS an update available from Microsoft Update), you get the Vista Basic theme. If users were promted with driver installation upon Windows installation, their first experience with the OS will be better at the end of the installation (though you are indeed disturbing the flow a little by actually having this dialog). And if OEMs' crapware can be manipulated at that same point - all the better.

• Anonymous
  November 03, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 03, 2008
  I am shocked to see no classic Start menu in Windows 7. MS should not be so overconfident about Windows 7 and keep the classic Start menu and taskbar around. What other than Vista can best be a testimony to what happens when things change without giving users choice?

• Anonymous
  November 03, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 03, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 03, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 03, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 03, 2008
  @mvadu I have to say in favor of DELL, that when I bought my notebook I received the original Vista DVD

• Anonymous
  November 03, 2008
  So I... acquired... the beta, and it turns out my old Vista Beta 2 key works! I've activated it and am dual booting it alongside Vista now. I have to say, VERY snappy and responsive. I'm gonna keep poking around more trying to break it now xD

• Anonymous
  November 03, 2008
  Very good work windows 7 team!! Mr. Steven CONGRATULATION!! I waiting for beta program!!

• Anonymous
  November 03, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 03, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 03, 2008
  Sorry I had to break and post my comments since they were not being posted probably because of so many characters...

• Anonymous
  November 03, 2008
  switching to classic Mistake

• Anonymous
  November 03, 2008
  can we change default encoding in notepad of windows 7 ?

• Anonymous
  November 03, 2008
  I had hoped that the OS was going to work on older machines with out the non-sense of Vista, Great OS but it will flop unless you get rid of performance ratings totally and allow user rating of the performance level to what the user wants, I can not even use the sidebar gadgets that I have written over the past several years, feels like I wasted a trip to LA. I had a lot more hopes for the operating system.

• Anonymous
  November 03, 2008
  >>I love the new Windows Explorer. I'm curious to see how it performs in it's final state. Vista's Explorer is brought to it's knees grouping ~3,000 MP3s by Album Artist, ~1,000 JPGs by tag, or ~100 WMVs by tag on a modest (E2200 @ 2.5GHz) processor. @bluefisch200

1. Select Explorer Window
2. Shake

As for PDC, it was quite the show, Steven. I'll admit I was quite impressed with some of the things I saw. Some of the new features (shake and peek) seem particular un-Microsoft-like, which, in this area is a good thing. Running on a low power netbook intrigued me as well but I'm curious is Windows 7 RTM will match that memory footprint in an unconstrained environment. Either way, you need better clickers next PDC. "Let's see if the clicker works..." :P

• Anonymous
  November 03, 2008
  Suggestion: 1).- Quick Launch Icons Grouping in taskbar. 2).- Some way to hide Gadgets easylly on desktop. I wait to see Spaces, UAC tweaks like "I trust this programs..", better preview for explorer, webcams utils...

• Anonymous
  November 03, 2008
  I just read about this topic on an Norwegian news site (http://itavisen.no/sak/792996/Microsoft_omfavner_piratformat/) In the comment bar (on the site) people is VERY happy about this. A guy said this: "Microsoft are beginning to understand the users." I totally agree! Built-in codecs in WMP is great news, but there are many complains about no Matroska Support. It is really important that you will integrate it. many people have use for it. Listen to us Microsoft! Doing this will make Windows 7 even more better! Good luck guys and nice work so far!

• Anonymous
  November 03, 2008
  locolorenzo: Windows 7 = Desktop Gadgets, forget sidebar gadgets

• Anonymous
  November 04, 2008
  @Domenico, Yes, even Microsoft Support mentioned that only Dell and Gateway laptops ship with a Windows Media. Unfortunately I got a Toshiba laptop. So Steven should push for Ecosystem providing a common assistance. (Steven, you are Microsoft, you can change the World!!). However MS should also provide a way to purchase the media if a customer already got a license. I was ready to pay up to 50$ if MS was ready to provide me an option.

• Anonymous
  November 04, 2008
  Another Suggestion: 3).- Better Logon Screen please, like longhorn concept video, vista logon is so ugly and has no improvement since XP.

• Anonymous
  November 04, 2008
  @Vistaline: No...i mean something else...how can i move a file from a open explorer window to a minimized window?

• Anonymous
  November 04, 2008
  From what I have seen so far, Windows 7 looks like an excellent release. I am very happy with my existing Vista x64 PC, but if you fulfill your promises with Win 7, I will be happy to upgrade right away. I have one wish, though - please make sure that an upgrade install of Win 7 works effortlessly and flawlessly. I know that it is always better to go for a full installation, but I would certainly welcome an easy upgrade path.

• Anonymous
  November 04, 2008
  Another suggestion: 4).- Unify Mesh, Skydrive, Office workspaces (i m user of all of them and is confuse) and make more integrated with windows 7 and windows live suite (mail, gallery,  movie maker)

• Anonymous
  November 04, 2008
  Great preview! Worth the wait!

• Anonymous
  November 04, 2008
  Hi, I haven't been checking into these blogs until recently.  However, from what I have seen, it really looks like Windows 7 is progressing well and it's exciting. One suggestion if it hasn't been mentioned already - The new task bar could be like a "flip address book."  The foreground would have 'set focus' while the background would show numerous "cards" spanning the width of the window as if you're flipping the address book. The cards that aren't in focus but shown in the background would be more opaque the further the distance. The address book effect would only appear if more than the amount of available space is used up by opened applications.  This could also be used in conjunction with a spannable taskbar over several monitors but would be limited to scrolling within the monitor showing the mouse pointer. It could be used by using the mouse wheel forward or background to change direction while being cursored over the taskbar. Users without a mouse wheel could position their mouse over the taskbar and hold down a key to toggle through the cards. As one who doesn't like using more than row for the scrollbar realestate, this would be a great feature to integrate.  The height of the opaque background cards could max out a user's choice of 30-50 pixels per se.

• Anonymous
  November 04, 2008
  @Asesh ...You should look before you think, and there is a sidebar in Program Files/Sidebar/sidebar.exe!!!!The sidebar runs in explorer, and they are still the same, I have never written a sidbar gadget, all my workings are and have been desktop gadgets. I hated the look of the sidebar since it's inception. Now back to reality. The Operation is very good through out, but MS has to start listening to people who do not buy new computers because they do not work for the job applications that a lot of the real world uses. The security issue with IE8 is a pain in the kester. I have not entered Product Code yet, because I am sure that I will have to format a couple of time before I even start to test software compatability. Visual Studio 2008 does not like this environment, do I have to throw my rather expensive set of microsoft products out and wait untill 2010 before programming again, it worked well in 2 other builds of Windows 7... Please get back on track again and stop doing this unified Taskbar thing, It is just to complex and the system has a lot of bugs to iron out...good Attempt, the OS is beautiful to look at, nice graphics but look at simplifying rather than glossing over, I am applying programs that do not work well, start looking at AutoCad compatability before you go further. MSSQL does this weird thing to the desktop where it looses the path to anything, you have to uninstall MSSQL and reinstall with Advanced SQL to get OS environment correct again, and get the gadget/widget thing ironed out, things might be  a little more user usefull. @lorne

• Anonymous
  November 04, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 04, 2008
  Will there be videos of sessions from WinHEC 2008 like PDC?

• Anonymous
  November 05, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 05, 2008
  Steven wrote "@Laith – we won’t announce the system requirements until later in the development cycle.  As you’ve’ seen, we have a strong focus on “fundamentals” so we expect any machine that is running Vista to be a good candidate for a Windows 7 machine :-)" Hahaaaa! THAT is funny! (if it was not for the little smiley...)

• Anonymous
  November 05, 2008
  It would be awesome if you guys fix the problem of (in multiple displays) screens disappearing and staying in other screens (which have been disconnected or disabled) Maybe it would be a nice addition to the new dock a right click option and a Send-To Display1 or something like that.

• Anonymous
  November 05, 2008
  The aero interface is awesomely smooth when moving the windows around... But when scrolling in "images rich" window (for eg: WMP album arts, Live photo gallery, pictures in Win7 library, music album art in win7 library..) the experience is very choppy......It would be great if auto smooth scrolling is possible for such applications (like its in Picasa photo editor)......It will just make me fall in love with windows7 and ur team :)

• Anonymous
  November 05, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 05, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 05, 2008
  @digitx Did you saw the first presentation in the post? There are a few very interesting changes which are different than what we've seen so far in Windows. In fact, the new window grouping concept reminds me a little of MAC OS X's dock. Close enough for my (conservative) kind of taste. Ribbon is now a WPF API which means it can (and is) used by some Windows applications, and can be easily used by third parties as well. As far as "revolutionary" goes - anything you have in mind?

• Anonymous
  November 06, 2008
  GBM InkShow: Windows 7 Running on a LS800 Tablet PC Link http://www.gottabemobile.com/2008/11/05/gbm-inkshow-windows-7-running-on-a-ls800-tablet-pc/ :D Nice!!

• Anonymous
  November 06, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 06, 2008
  An important suggest: When "Hide extensions for known file types" in folder options is disable, then when we want create new file, or rename a file, windows will auto select just file's name, not fileName+extensionName. This will speedup our works(and is good for moodlesses!) Do you know my purpose?

• Anonymous
  November 06, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 06, 2008
  Taskbar needs to be re-sizeable and be able to pick a color for theme , codecs need to update themselves trough media player , media player thumbnail preview needs no frames around or it looks ugly... Why is Vistas core so big when Winmin8 is 50mb? Why can't people test more newer builds yet? Why java, adobe acrobat , open office and soem other company softwares create bootloaders when we already have superfetch for it?? Nero software seems do add more and more bloatware whats also bad kick for PC when you are beginner...

• Anonymous
  November 06, 2008
  @Prixsel Taskbar IS resizable... right click on the start menu and uncheck "Lock the taskbar". Then grab the upper side of the start menu and drag it up to where you want it. It DOES pick the color theme of the OS (in Vista adjustable by right click and "Personalize"). SOME codecs update themselves over WMP, but not all. I'm not sure if it's WMP's fault or the codecs' themselves... or maybe the formats (AVI, MPEG) don't offer comprehensive enough metadata abilities for WMP to locate the codec and get it... I don't know. I'm not completely sure as to whether the WMP preview needs a frame. It appears like it could use it. It may look ugly, but it serves a purpose - it sets it apart from other apps you may have. The Windows core, AFAIK is really lite. That's how Winmin and others are created after all - they take the core, and on top of it put only what's a must from their developers' point of view. The Windows we see is bloated because it is created for more scenarios than Winmin like builds. I'm not sure what you mean by "test more newer builds yet". What more do you want than the PDC release? Access to the internal Windows builds? What's next? Windows going open source? For JAVA, Adobe Reader, Open Office and the rest, you'll have to ask the respective companies why they do that, not Microsoft. If those companies say they are forced because of lack of good APIs from MS, THEN come again and say (on their behalf) what APIs must MS make so that those companies can abandon their ways.

• Anonymous
  November 06, 2008
  What I missed in the PDC was how Windows 7 will cope with PCs of various ages. Surely it is possible to automatically define scenarios based on state-of-the-art PCs, PCs with Pentium 4 or similar, Pentium 3 with fast processors etc. Something like that should help a lot in making Windows run fast on anything....

• Anonymous
  November 06, 2008
  from what i've seen Win7 looks about a gazillion times better than Vista, and i will actually be really looking forward to it's release. Windows Explorer windows still contain far too much extraneous fluff, it must be said. I would highly advise getting a few interface designers to look at the general layout of explorer windows and optimise them further; far too much space is wasted at the top and sides, which i would much rather be used displaying files and folders. keep things simple and rational!

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 07, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 07, 2008
  Hello there, I’m probably in a minority, but I’d like to tell you I’m a bit disappointed of what Windows 7 M3 is. Still, I have to praise you for all the changes that made using Windows faster (mainly because of fewer clicks to achieve sth and reduction of UAC impact on one’s mental health) and many UI changes that seem to confirm you started to pay attention to small incongruence of UI and correct them. Having adopt changes accordingly to user input should also be acknowledged. To make it short – the process of developing Windows 7, apart from being mysterious, is to the great extent experience for both you (as you state) and users, who finally can feel much interaction and gaining ability to tell their opinion and be heard. But let me get to the point. Everything that has changed is mostly a change towards how it long ago should have been. Claiming Windows 7 is a major release is an exaggeration for me. I see only Longhorn OS made how it should look like at the end of 2006. And I’ve already got used to Vista, and I like it. But Windows 7 gave me no new experience, it’s like between Windows 98 and 98 SE, so why is there a new name? People claim to be charmed by your newest, still growing child, but apart from excellent stability for pre-beta release, I have not seen no performance gains in comparison to my Vista SP1. Something happens 5% faster (I didn’t measure; it’s just my experience), but that might be a mistake of my perception and at most it may form a kind of SP rather than a major release. Therefore, should I be waiting for something more in Beta 1 when Windows will become feature complete? (I’d just like to notice that multi-touch, however innovative, is a feature that I have no interest for.)

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2008
  @Hino Musouka Hey  M3 is not RTM or RC.

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 07, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2008
  @Steven: from an OEM perspective, recovery is “return to the original state”.   Thanks for the prompt response Steven, but my whole point with the windows media is, I paid 1000+$ for a laptop, which mentioned Windows Vista. OEM's fixed a higher price for a laptop with Vista compared to one with Linux because of Windows License. So I am paying not for the hardware but for the software and Windows License as well. So I believe it’s my right to have Windows Installation media, because If I buy windows off the shelf I get media along with license. Windows EULA for an OEM version does not mention lack of media, not any EULA I accepted while buying the laptop. If OEM or Microsoft denies providing me the windows installation media just because I have an OEM license and not a retail license then they are blocking my right. And if Microsoft really wants to support its users (especially the ones who will be using the new version of Windows before people buy it in a retail shop, i.e. OEM buyers) then they should mention/mandate to provide windows media (not just restore to original, but regular installation media) along with the OEM license. I don't want my laptop to return to original, but I want my operating system to return to original, or part of the operating system like a system file to return to original. Again, you are Microsoft, and you can really change the industry if you want. There are companies doing the right thing already like Dell who provides both Restoration disk/partition and windows installation disk. And you can force other folly players like Toshiba, HP and others to follow the right way. If not at least you can change your own marketing policies which says “We can not provide replacement media for OEM licenses” which is some thing you are forcing on users but not agreed upon in the beginning (I mean user never agreed for this condition while buying the PC or agreeing to Windows EULA). You can charge a small fee and provide the replacement disk for OEM users. I am not sure why you guys are forcing people like me who paid for windows license but still need to look in file sharing networks for windows media.

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2008
  @mvadu, I agree with you. From the other side it makes Windows XP more popular now: if you buy laptop with Vista Business for example, you can install Windows XP Pro instead of it (from any legal CD produced by Microsoft). And Windows XP allows you for making partitioning like you want in situation when Vista not :)

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2008
  @Hino Musouka Major or no major this is SUPERB RELEASE!!! Talk after RTM. @mvadu I understand OEM that they should respect the limitations of the  BOOT.

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2008
  @Domenico "limitations of the  BOOT" What do you mean? I am not sure what you are referring to..

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 07, 2008
  @mvadu, I understand, what you wanted to say and I know, how work XP and Vista installation CD/DVD. But currently you have many times situation, that Vista is in Restoration Disk form only (which like you notified removes all partitions from HDD) and you can install XP instead of it (I remind: XP from any CD). Old system is once again better than Vista. In other words "XP allows you for making partitioning like you want in situation when Vista not" (once again: Vista like provided by OEMs)

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2008
  @mvadu I mean, respect for time prescribed by Microsoft 15 sec- 18 sec (not remember now)

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 07, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 07, 2008
  Great Windows 7 presentation, and the feedback is way positive. Thank you. There is something that puzzles me though. We heard in the past that only WDDM 2.1 would fully support D3D10.x and so on. The downside would be no backwards compatibility with D3D9 video cards etc. Now you told us that Windows is not only games and that Windows 7 have WDDM 1.1. This way you did not brake backwards compatibility. So Windows 7 has direct 2D, Direct Write and the rest is almost the same like Vista. Though we cannot for ever blame AMD, Nvidia and the rest video card companies for slow 3D performance, bad drivers and video crashes you know. Could you please tell us what to expect in the future about WDDM, OpenGL, D3D, D2D, GDI, GDI+, Direct Draw, and WPF?

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2008
  Why hasn't ribbon been integrated into Windows Explorer? It would look really cool and would me so convenient to use explorer. It would make Windows look really different from Linux and Mac OS X too. Def. ribbon has made using Office 2007 so easy and cool too. Guys please do that and expose the hidden features or features that aren't easy to find of Windows like shadow copy and others via that ribbon!

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2008
  I have a suggestion involving these two products: The zune media player is great, now why don't they mix the zune software and wmp and offer it as a service like windows live mail. etc? Then people would have the choice of either getting arguably the best media player around, or getting winamp or itunes.etc OR make it possible for the zune playeer to COMPLETELY replace WMP when installed. Give it better video playback awell. Hoping for a response from the team. Thanks!

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2008
  @marcinw, We should speak about this very loud.. Exactly.. we have to speak out loud, and force the OEM's to follow a common good practice. When Dell can ship their laptops with Windows media, then others can surely do. We are asking them to give us our right.. not a favor. None of the agreements mentioned lack of installation media for the OEM license, and we paid for the license. We deserve a proper treatment from MS as well, if they can provide replacement disk for Retail license holders, they should give them same to OEM license holders as well. Since we might have paid less for OEM licenses, let them charge a fee for the disk but they should not deny the replacement.

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 08, 2008
  @Steven, what about Quick Launch? Can we get it back just the way it was? I don't wish to mix running and yet to be launched programs even if I can enable text labels.

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 09, 2008
  Every Program that I have installed works so far, better support than Vista

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2008
  Hi, I was hoping the session on ribbons might answer a question I've had ever since seeing this new UI on the recent Office release. Unfortunately it didn't hence this post. With the growing prevalence of "wide screen" laptops, the vertical space has been reduced while the horizontal space has been increased. The new ribbon UI unfortunately (in my experience) consumes more of this now reduced resource (vertical space) causing me to see much less of my document. I thought for sure Microsoft would retract this feature as the complaints were received but clearly this has not been the case. So my question is this: did the usability studies performed on this feature explicitly consider the impact of decreased document visibility on the dominant laptop display format? And, if so, was it simply a case of, "Yes, this is the cost but all our other feedback confirmed the cost was justified by X"? Cheers.

• Anonymous
  November 10, 2008
  Thumbs up for S7even Sinofsky and his team ;)

• Anonymous
  November 10, 2008
  After using Windows 7 for several days it is Vista improved, but it is still Vista.  Windows 7 still carries on the locking up of the UI, can't move the menu, address bar, tool bar, this stance started with Vista/Longhorn ver 4074 and carries on to this day. Four years of the same complaints and still no end in sight.....  I'm not being negative here I'm just stating a simple fact. Microsoft still has not given back that aspect, IE 8 is the same.  I would just like to know why?  For the life of me I can't figure out how it would undermine Microsoft or Windows or even IE 7 or 8 to give back that ability. Over in the IE 8 blog the state that only 20% of the users move the tool bars around.  Only 20%? If Microsoft stock dropped 20% they be having kittens, If they cut Steve Ballmer's pay by 20% I think he be upset.  Just going by the 88 million copies of Vista has sold let see that would be only 17.6 million users would like.... never mind  Mr Ballmer, "tear down this wall!"

• Anonymous
  November 10, 2008
  If the Question is allowed...When will the Public Beta come?

• Anonymous
  November 10, 2008
  Another interesting issue: Instead of XP Pro you can install Win 2000, instead of Vista Business you can install XP Pro. What will be downgrade system for Win 7 ? If Vista, it will not add popularity into it (Win 7). Additionally: there are rumours, that Microsoft will offer upgrade for Vista users to Win 7. If it will be possible to pay small money, receive installation DVD even for OEM and install Win XP as downgrade system for it, it could be good move...

• Anonymous
  November 10, 2008
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• Anonymous
  November 15, 2008
  @Steven & The Windows 7 Team Hello Win7 team. I tried out the new Win7 taskbar hidden in the PDC version. The experience is good, but not quite fulfilling. When I have many tabs in IE8, about 12 tabs, I couldn't get any preview anymore. The idea is that there are not enough space per row (if dock at top/bottom). The previews becomes text and I have to click IE8 to open up the group list instead of mouse hover. It is like XP nightmare all over again. My first expectation is that OS will expand the preview to multiple rows or columns when necessary. I think this is particularly important to IE8 because we opens a lot of tabs and you treat each tab as one task. Please make the experience more fulfilling. Thank you.

• Anonymous
  December 01, 2008
  The decade old bugs from Notepad (word wrap and save bugs especially) haven't been fixed. WordPad still needs a spell checker, justified formatting and more features (like the Works work processor) more than the Ribbon. How about adding some actual features to Paint rather than just UI decorations? Command prompt, Character Map and System Information haven't been touched in decades. The sound recorder should let users specify the WMA encoding settings or let users use WMA Pro (which maintains quality much better than WMA). THIS!! !is the pre-beta!!!?

• Anonymous
  February 08, 2012
  Mr. Sinofsky, why was the classic Start Menu removed? Is there a way Microsoft could bring it back via an update or something?