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Windows Features 7 Leak Ahead of PDC
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Shane McGlaun / DailyTech
October 27, 2008
‘Little is known about most features on pre-beta Windows 7 version to be shown at PDC.’ -
Windows Vista hasn’t proven to be the wildly popular operating system that Microsoft had originally hoped. The early angst against the OS was so strong that Windows XP still hangs around and can be had on many new computer systems.
Microsoft is already getting Windows 7 ready to pick up where Vista floundered. DailyTech reported on October 14 that Microsoft had chosen to stick with Windows 7 as the official name for the coming operating system. Microsoft also said that it would show the OS to developers in pre-beta form at the Professional Developers Conference this week.
Ahead of the conference, some details are coming out that give an idea of some of the early features of Windows 7. According to ZDNet, the features being offered in the pre-beta version at the show include Action Center, StreamOn, a new animation framework, new task bar and shell, multi-touch and gesture recognition, ribbons, and improved Bluetooth support.
Many of the details of the features won’t be known until they are announced officially at the conference. Action Center is known to be a self-diagnosis tool to help repair problems with Windows 7. Hopefully, rather than Vista’s tendency to simply tell users who have problems to get drivers from the hardware makers website or the error can’t be fixed, Action Center will actually offer a fix for errors.
The DeviceStage feature is one of the unknowns, though ZDNet speculates that it may be a sort of souped up Plug and Play since the feature will only work with Device Stage enabled peripherals. StreamOn is a way to control multimedia content on the PC, but how it works is unknown. The new animation framework is a question mark as well. Perhaps it’s a built-in animation creator sort of like the built-in movie editing features.
Multi-touch and gesture recognition are features that have been associated and known for Windows 7 for a while. Improved Bluetooth support is self-explanatory, though the level of “improved support” is unknown.
The ribbon interface was seen in leaks from September of the M3 build of Windows 7. I haven’t personally seen the ribbons, but if they draw half the ire in Windows 7 as the ribbons did in Office 2007, I hope there is a way to go back to a more traditional Windows layout.
ZDNet reports that Microsoft is on track to deliver a public beta of Windows 7 by mid-December 2008 and the final version in 2009. That time frame would jibe with Asus CEO Jerry Chen’s statement that Eee PC netbooks would ship with Windows 7 by mid-2009.
© 2008, DailyTech
dbutler
10 months ago
2 comments
Some say change is good. It is when functionality ar speed are improved. How exer moving things around and changing the user interface just to be different is counter-productive. I have been around since windows 3.0. The only real significant difference is plug and pray and that was not fully functional until Windows XP, 95 and 98 were just trial operating systems to make some money to pay for research.
TimBergkvist
about 1 year ago
12 comments
Vista caused me to move to a mac. Oddly enough, I haven't had any problems so far with vista on my mac. Though I usually boot up as a mac because it's safer. Windows 7 looks like vista. I hope win7 isn't vista in disguise. That would be an underhanded bait and switch and won't go over well in the end. As far as features, can't we just stick with a look and feel we're already comfortable with without adding ribbons. I use keyboard shortcuts for nearly everything and office changed it all. I used to hit alt-i,s to insert my signature at the bottom of an email. alt-i was removed and office just sent an unfinished email because alt-s is send. Even knowing this, it is hard to change habits when you get used to what works. Sorry for the rambling...bottom line.. IF IT AINT BROKE, DON'T 'FIX' IT.
SkyKing5
about 1 year ago
16 comments
This looks interesting. However, if it is a warmed over version of Vista, i suspect that fewer people will buy into Windows 7 as easily as they bought into XP. As it was, XP was a tough sell with Vista being so tough that people actually went out and bought XP as quickly as they could rather than buy Vista anyversion. Many people also went out of their way to have a Linux load on their systems rather than deal with Microsoft Anyload. The article was good. But, the comments were telling.
shandel
about 1 year ago
70 comments
Cant wait for the launch.I hope this is not just a sister or brother of vista,but something totally different.Something that the people could look forward to and say that is a great feature.I'm really looking for the this event.I want to see if this version of windows will be good enough to let folks re-think vista or they are just going to be different in their own way.And folks will just have to choose base on their computer needs.Whatsoever meets their needs.
Deathrow_Nzl
about 1 year ago
38 comments
One thing Microsoft always does,
They give System recommended requirements that are about a 1/3 or a 1/4 of what should be recommended before I or anyone in the industry would even be thinking of moving up a operating system.
Example For Windows XP they recommend
Pentium 300 MHz,128 MB Ram,1.5 GB HD,SVGA
I,d Recommend at least CPU 800mhz,Ram 512,10GB HD cause of Services pack & office,SVGA
& Vista they Recommend
1 GHz CPU 32-bit or 64-bit, 1 GB RAM 40 GB HD with at least 15 GB free,DX9 Graphic Card
Vista I Would recommend at least Dualcore 3Ghz,3GB,40GB HD & DX9 or 10 Graphics card
If you actually use there Minimal requirements you will probably find yourself going back to the previous OS.
I think that has a lot to do with why some people love vista & some people hate it!
Vynoslivost
about 1 year ago
2 comments
I've only one simple hope for 7 right now:
That it wont drop all of my usb devices like Vista.
I hate that...
J2ten
about 1 year ago
180 comments
I'm really curious if it will be a memory and system Hog like Vista. Do you suppose they may have address those issues or at least opened the cap on the amount of memory that can be used?
Mr_Daimao
about 1 year ago
20 comments
I really do hope this OS is worth a damn.
t0ta1
about 1 year ago
2 comments
Ribbons are fine, actually they are great once you get used to them and thats exactly the issue. Most people don't like change, change is the unknown, most fear the unknown no matter the level or context.