Windows 7, Some Quick Impressions
November 11, 2008 by Josh
Filed under Builds and Betas, First Impressions
After finally getting my hands on the build of Windows 7 (6801) handed out at PDC I’ve been playing around with it for the last few days.
My main question was whether or not this pre-beta was good enough to be used as a main OS and even replace Vista. The answer is both yes and no. Yes because it’s already fast, stable and full of new features, no because for me my Bluetooth is incompatible.
There are bugs, most of them are hard to pinpoint because none or show-stopping however the more you use it the more it will become apparent exactly why this is still a pre-beta product. The main cause of them seems to be from the new explorer libraries feature which incidentally is fantastic, easily the best new feature in Windows 7.
Get the pre-Beta from Torrent Sites
It took approximately 1 day from when the pre-beta version of Windows 7 was given out at PDC to the torrent appearing on torrent sites like the Pirate Bay and Mininova. If you’re looking to download yourself a copy don’t get too excited – as can be expected the number of people seeding the release is significantly less than those downloading, over 5000 last I checked.
The files seem to be valid, although one point to note is that the build given to the PDC attendees (Build 6801) was not the same build as demonstrated at the conference, however many of the features are actually available within the build but are locked down, Rafael of Within Windows has been very active in discovering and unlocking these features.
Burning ISO Images
I’d already heard something to this effect before the pre-beta release but it was great to see support for burning ISO images had finally made it into Windows.
Hopefully this will mean one less crap-ware application bundled by Computer sellers, although in the past I have been glad of Toshiba providing a utility with my laptop for burning ISO images.
It’s conceivable that physical discs will soon become irrelevant and instead all software will be installed via ISO images and virtual drives and distributed via the internet.
Windows 7 News Roundup
It’s Sunday, it’s quiet and I don’t really feel like writing about much.
Time for a link post, here are a couple articles from around the blogosphere:
Gregg Keizer, Computerworld: Windows 7: The Story So Far
Just a summary of everything we know so far about Windows 7. Nothing new here, but worth a read if you wanna catch up on all the Windows 7 news that didn’t make it onto Techmeme.
50 times. During one day.
Long Zheng, istartedsomething: Evolution of the taskbar in Windows 7 - “Superbar”
As usual Long Zheng manages to pick up on some tiny detail the rest of us miss. I very much agree with his point here too:
“Now you would probably be wondering why I just spent so much effort writing about a taskbar, and the answer is because this is what Windows 7 is about. They’re going to take existing interface elements like the taskbar and give them a new coat of paint with some sparkles. Different enough so you notice them, like Walt Mossberg did.”
I began talking about this topic over the last couple weeks and will have another article coming up soon. Check back for it or subscribe to our feed.
Min Win via Shipping Seven
“Shipping Seven” is a name that was first associated with a blog supposedly by a Microsoft programmer working on Windows 7. While choosing a name for our Windows 7 blog we decided upon this not to rip off the original blog, but because the name has become associated with the general Windows 7 development process.
I have no reason to doubt that the anonymous author of Shipping Seven isn’t a Microsoft employee, although he certainly doesn’t offer up any sensitive information. In fact wether he is an insider or simply a very well informed tech reader his contributions are interesting and informative regardless.
He just today updated the blog for the first time in a couple months with a response to the Slashdot posting entitled “Windows 7 Won’t Have Compact “MinWin” Kernel”
Calm down.
MinWin is not some magical new kernel. It is Windows with every single feature stripped out - It is the base ingredient of any version of Windows. (I forget the exact size. But it is pretty tiny - small enough for embedded stuff.)
A Speculative Look into Our Multi-Touch Future
May 28, 2008 by Jimmy Rogers
Filed under News
Last night at D6, the be all and end all of executive tech conferences, Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates presented themselves in a panel-like discussion (check here and here for the video highlights). While their accounts of the history of Microsoft, especially the beginnings, were interesting, the thing that everyone was waiting for was the rumored first look at Windows 7’s new user interface. Well, we were definitely not disappointed.
Before I dive in with my analysis, make sure you’ve seen this video from last night and checked out our own article on the various images:
Windows 7 Multi-Touch Demo
Windows 7 D6 Photos
What the video depicts is rather unexciting to the educated multi-touch crowd: maps, directions, pictures, and simulated music devices. All of this has been done before by either the iPhone or some other experimental project. What excites me is the fact that it will be built into the core of the Windows 7 OS.
There have been versions of Windows in the past that specialized in stylus integration for use on a tablet, but this goes above and beyond. Assuming the best of all possible worlds, this is the user interface (UI) paradigm shift that movies like Minority Report suggested to our imaginations. While Windows 7 may not debut a gloved and holographic interface, it certainly does appear to be a major evolutionary step in that direction.
Touchscreen interaction with a computer opens up many possibilities to developers who want to utilize the new technology. Permanent menu bars and other OS standards may begin to vanish as gestures like two-fingered touch and shape writing replace common commands. In the video above they demonstrate either an extended touch or a two-fingered touch to open a “dialog circle” (instead of a dialog box) that allows for pre-set items to be selected. While this has already been experimented with in a stylus interface, I believe much more complex pattern-recognition systems may lead to an almost infinitely customizable command interface.
Think about program operations for a minute. There was a “touchable paint” program used to draw a tree with all 10 fingers. Nothing you’ll use every day, but I can certainly see game and design software developers beginning to think how they will implement finger-touching. Of course the mouse will be with us for quite some time, but eventually some controls may evolve to be too complex for a simple, static pointer.
Just some thoughts: post yours in the comments!
[Via AllThingsD]
[Image sources linked to them, movie rights with 20th Century Fox]
- Jimmy Rogers is a freelance technology blogger and the author of his own blog, Mason Tech Beat.
Windows 7 D6 Photos
These photographs are taken barely an hour ago as Bill Gates demonstrates some of Windows 7’s new features and interface at the D6 conference.
I must admit I’m very surprised as I never expected Windows 7’s new UI to actually be anything like the concepts in the left screenshot below. However as you can see from Gizmodo’s actual photograph of Windows 7 it would seem this really is part of the new Windows interface, for applications such as Live maps anyway.
Check back or subscribe for more coverage soon.
A Tight-Lipped Interview with Steven Sinofsky
May 27, 2008 by Jimmy Rogers
Filed under Feature, News
After reading Ina Fried’s interview with Steven Sinofsky I have one recommendation. Don’t bother.
Sinofsky, head of Windows engineering over at Microsoft, gave the most corporate, double-talking interview I have ever heard. In a discussion that must have taken ten minutes, Sinofsky took questions about the secretive nature of Windows 7 development, the timing of the release, and new features to expect out of the box.
By “took questions,” by the way, I mean he allowed them to be said in front of him. Sinofsky answered virtually none of the questions of any importance to those watching the development of the new OS. Much of the interview was spent identifying why his division has been so tight-lipped throughout early development. His reply to that went mostly along the lines of “we’re talking to people…hardware developers…software developers…our other friends…just not you.” It seems Microsoft’s formula for sucess with Windows 7 is to produce no expectations whatsoever, so when it finally appears its mere existence will constitute a salable feature.
Even on points of general philosophy about the release, Sinofsky dodged with comments about “making the best product they can” and so forth. On their direction with growth to new user groups he said,
“…I think what I would say is that we’re talking about different types of customers, and different types of customers have different needs for information and are able to absorb it in a way that I think is mutually responsible.”
If you can get anything out of that vague mess it might be “different strokes for different folks.” Either their new philosophy is still in the works or they don’t have one at all.
He did confirm that the target release date is still the end of January 2010. In most of the commentary I have seen, this release date is a terrible choice for the consumer market because it (just as with Vista) bypassed the entire holiday buying season. A release around September 2009 would be much more reasonable for said buying season, but clearly they do not believe it will be ready. If this is the case, why pick January? Wouldn’t June or September 2010 be much more reasonable times to push Windows 7 into the marketplace?
One of the bright spots of the inteview is that upon release, Windows 7 shouldn’t be fraught with the same issues that Vista had. Electronista points out that, based on what Microsoft has indicated, the drivers and features of Windows 7 will be readily available to developers so that it will be more reliable and noticably better than Vista out of the box. Many of the best features of Vista, like DirectX 10, have yet to be seriously implemented by software developers.
For further reading on the Sinofsky interview check out Ina Fried’s own take on it as well as the aforementioned Electronista article.
There is definitely a possibility that we will hear at least a little more about Windows 7 soon though. The D6 conference (tonight as I’m writing this) will feature Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates on stage and the All Things Digital blog confirms that Windows 7 will not only be discussed, but some of the user interface will be demonstrated as well. Definitely check back with Shipping Seven later on today and tomorrow for coverage of any announcements regarding Microsoft’s next racehorse.
- Jimmy Rogers is a freelance technology blogger and the author of his own blog, Mason Tech Beat.
Windows 7 Third Party Themes
Somehow Rafael over at Within Windows managed to get his hands on a leaked version of Windows 7 M1 and had a bit of a play around with the system.
Rafael has been creating .dll patches for 8 years and his latest is the Windows 7 uxtheme patch. It’s actually pretty pointless at the moment as no one has a copy of Windows 7, but I guess it makes him look pretty pro.
You can get the new patch, and all the patches for previous Windows operating systems on this page.
Windows XP
Windows Vista
Windows Vista SP1
Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2008
Windows 7
Windows 7 Transformation Pack
Oh boy.
I knew it wouldn’t be long before some people began doing this stuff. I’ve compiled together these few downloads so you too can have the almost-Vista experience of Windows 7.
Visual Theme:
Windows Seven Theme for Vista by ~vistaaero on deviantART
Sidebar Gadgets:
Windows Seven Gadgets by ~vistaaero on deviantART
Build Number on Desktop
Windows Seven Build in desktop by ~vistaaero on deviantART
Windows 7 About Box
Windows Seven M1 AboutBox by ~vistaaero on deviantART
Windows 7 Animated Logon
Windows Seven Animated Logon by ~vistaaero on deviantART
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