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Windows 7

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Template:Beta software

Windows 7
File:Windows7logo.png
File:Windows 7 beta.png
Windows 7 Beta (build 7000)
DeveloperMicrosoft
OS familyMicrosoft Windows
Source modelClosed source
Latest preview6.1.7000 / January 7, 2009; 15 years ago (2009-01-07)[1]
Update methodWindows Update
Platformsx86, x86-64
Kernel typeHybrid
LicenseMicrosoft EULA
Official websitehttp://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/Windows7/Home
Articles in the series

Windows 7 (formerly codenamed Blackcomb and Vienna) is the next release of Microsoft Windows, an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, Tablet PCs, netbooks[2] and media center PCs.[3]

Microsoft stated in 2007 they were planning Windows 7 development for a three-year time frame starting after the release of its predecessor, Windows Vista. Microsoft has stated that the final release date would be determined by product quality.[4]

Unlike its predecessor, Windows 7 is intended to be an incremental upgrade from Vista, with the goal of being fully compatible with device drivers, applications, and hardware with which Windows Vista is already compatible.[5] Presentations given by the company in 2008 have focused on multi-touch support, a redesigned Windows Shell with a new taskbar, a home networking system called HomeGroup,[6] and performance improvements. Some applications that have been included with prior releases of Microsoft Windows, most notably Windows Movie Maker, and Windows Photo Gallery, are no longer included with the operating system; they are instead offered separately (free of charge) as part of the Windows Live Essentials suite.[7]

Development

Main article: Development of Windows 7

Originally, a version of Windows codenamed Blackcomb was planned as the successor to Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. 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. Later, Blackcomb was delayed and an interim, minor release, codenamed "Longhorn" was announced for 2003.[8] By the middle of 2003, however, Longhorn had acquired some of the features originally intended for Blackcomb. After three major viruses exploited flaws in Windows operating systems within a short time period in 2003, Microsoft changed its 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. Development of Longhorn (Windows Vista) was also "reset" in September 2004.

Blackcomb was renamed Vienna in early 2006,[9] and again to Windows 7 in 2007.[4] In 2008, it was announced that Windows 7 would also be the official name of the operating system.[10][11] The first external release to select Microsoft partners came in January 2008 with Milestone 1 (build 6519).[12]

Bill Gates, in an interview with Newsweek, suggested that the next version of Windows would "be more user-centric".[13] Gates later said that Windows 7 will also focus on performance improvements;[14] Steven Sinofsky later expanded on this point, explaining in the Engineering Windows 7 blog that the company was using a variety of new tracing tools to measure the performance of many areas of the operating system on an ongoing basis, to help locate inefficient code paths and to help prevent performance regressions.[15]

Senior Vice President Bill Veghte stated that Windows 7 will not have the kind of compatibility issues with Windows Vista that Vista has with previous versions.[16] Speaking about Windows 7 on 16 October 2008, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer confirmed compatibility between Vista and Windows 7.[17] Ballmer also confirmed the relationship between Vista and Windows 7, indicating that Windows 7 will be an improved version of Vista.[17]

On 27 December 2008 Windows 7 Beta was leaked onto the Internet.[18] According to a performance test by ZDNet,[19] Windows 7 Beta has beaten both Windows XP and Vista in several key areas, including boot and shutting down time, working with files and loading documents; others, including PC Pro benchmarks for typical office activities and video-editing, remain identical to Vista and slower than XP.[20] On 7 January 2009, the 64-bit version of the Windows 7 Beta (build 7000) was leaked onto the web.[21]

The official beta, announced at the CES 2009, was made available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers on 7 January 2009[22] and was made briefly available for public download on Microsoft TechNet on 9 January 2009 before being withdrawn and replaced with a coming soon message. The servers were experiencing difficulty in dealing with the number of users who wished to download the beta. Microsoft added additional servers to cope with the large volume of interest from the public.[23] Due to the unexpectedly high demand, Microsoft has also decided to remove its initial 2.5 million download limit and make it available to the public until January 24th 2009[24], and again to February 10th, where from then it will no longer be available to the public, although paused or deferred downloads of the DVD image files will still work till February 12th.[25]

Users can still download the windows 7 via the Microsoft connect program and a release candidate is to be released in April, and the final product to be released at the end of 2009.

Features

New and changed features

Main article: Features new to Windows 7
File:WordPad 7 7000.png
WordPad in Windows 7
File:Windows 7 Action Center.png
The new Windows Action Center which replaces Windows Security Center

Windows 7 includes a number of new features, such as advances in touch, speech, and handwriting recognition, support for virtual hard disks, improved performance on multi-core processors[26][27][28][29], improved boot performance, and kernel improvements.

Windows 7 adds support for systems using multiple heterogeneous graphics cards from different vendors, a new version of Windows Media Center,[30] 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 Taskbar, improved media features, the XPS Essentials Pack being integrated, Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE), and a redesigned Calculator with multiline capabilities including Programmer and Statistics modes along with unit conversion.

Many new items have been added to the Control Panel including: ClearType Text Tuner, Display Color Calibration Wizard, Gadgets, Recovery, Troubleshooting, Workspaces Center, Location and Other Sensors, Credential Manager, Biometric Devices, System Icons, Action Center, and Display.[31] Windows Security Center has been renamed to Windows Action Center (Windows Health Center and Windows Solution Center in earlier builds) which encompasses both security and maintenance of the computer.

The taskbar has seen the biggest visual changes, where the Quick Launch toolbar has been merged with the task buttons to create an enhanced taskbar or what Microsoft internally refers to as the "Superbar". This enhanced taskbar also enables the Jump Lists feature to allow easy access to common tasks.[32] The revamped taskbar also allows the reordering of taskbar buttons.

Screenshots have appeared demonstrating a new feature called 'Peek'. Peek is a quick way of making all visible windows transparent for a quick look at the desktop.[33] A Microsoft spokesman said that "this will be useful for users who want a quick look at the news" in reference to RSS gadgets on the desktop.[citation needed]

Unlike Windows Vista, window borders and the taskbar do not turn dark when maximized when Windows Aero is applied. Instead, it remains in Aero Transparency even when maximized in Windows 7.

For developers, Windows 7 includes a new networking API with support for building SOAP based web services in native code (as opposed to .NET based WCF web services),[34] new features to shorten application install times, reduced UAC prompts, simplified development of installation packages,[35] and improved globalization support through a new Extended Linguistic Services API.[36]

At WinHEC 2008 Microsoft announced that color depths of 30-bit and 48-bit would be supported in Windows 7 along with the wide color gamut scRGB (which for HDMI 1.3 can be converted and output as xvYCC). The video modes supported in Windows 7 are 16-bit sRGB, 24-bit sRGB, 30-bit sRGB, 30-bit with extended color gamut sRGB, and 48-bit scRGB.[37][38] Microsoft is also investigating better support for Solid State Drives and Windows 7 will be able to identify a Solid State Drive uniquely.[39]

Windows 7 adds online versions of Spades, Backgammon and Checkers.

Removed features

While Windows 7 contains many new features, a number of capabilities and certain programs that were a part of Windows Vista are no longer present or have changed, resulting in the removal of certain functionality. The following is a list of features that were present in Windows Vista but have been removed in Windows 7.

Antitrust regulatory attention

As with other Microsoft operating systems, Windows 7 is being studied by United States federal regulators who oversee the company's operations following the 2001 United States v. Microsoft settlement. According to status reports filed, the three-member panel began assessing prototypes of the new operating system in February 2008. Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Jupiter Research said that, "[Microsoft's] challenge for Windows 7 will be how can they continue to add features that consumers will want that also don't run afoul of regulators."[44]

It has been noted that Windows 7 may be required to ship with rival browsers including possibly Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome. The reason for this suspicion is on the inclusion of Internet Explorer which is seen as harming competition.[45]

Editions

Main article: Windows 7 editions

Windows 7 will include six editions, although Microsoft will focus only on selling the Home Premium and Professional (Business in Windows Vista) editions to the retail and consumer markets. Enterprise will be available for corporate customers with a Select license agreement. Ultimate will have limited retail availability. Windows 7 Home Basic will be available for sale only in emerging markets, and the Starter edition will only be sold through PC makers, but unlike with Vista, it will be sold worldwide.

Each edition will be a superset of the previous, containing all included features. As a result, upgrading from one edition to another has been simplified.[46]

Hardware requirements

Microsoft has published some recommended specifications for a system running the Windows 7 beta.

Windows 7 Beta recommended specifications[47]
Beta Recommended Specs
Processor Speed 1 GHz (Either 32-bit or 64-bit)
Memory (RAM) 1 GB
Graphics card DirectX 9.0 capable
Graphics memory 128 MB (For Windows Aero)
HDD free space 16 GB
Other drives DVD-ROM
Audio Audio output

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/07/microsoft-announces-availability-of-windows-7-beta-and-windows-l/
  2. ^ "Netbook version of Windows 7?".
  3. ^ "Cnet: Next version of Windows: Call it 7".
  4. ^ a b Foley, Mary J (20 July 2007). "Windows Seven: Think 2010". ZDNet. Retrieved 2007-09-19. Cite error: The named reference "zdnet592" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  5. ^ Nash, Mike (28 October 2008). "Windows 7 Unveiled Today at PDC 2008". Windows Team Blog. Microsoft. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
  6. ^ LeBlanc, Brandon (28 October 2008). "How Libraries & HomeGroup Work Together in Windows 7". Windows Team Blog. Microsoft. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
  7. ^ LeBlance, Brandon (28 October 2008). "The Complete Windows Experience – Windows 7 + Windows Live". Windows Team Blog. Microsoft. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
  8. ^ Lettice, John (2001-10-24). "Gates confirms Windows Longhorn for 2003". The Register. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
  9. ^ Thurrott, Paul (14 February 2007). "Windows "7" FAQ". Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  10. ^ Fried, Ina (2008-10-13). "Microsoft makes Windows 7 name final". CNET. Retrieved 2008-10-13.
  11. ^ Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (2008). "For Microsoft's Windows, 7th time's a charm". Retrieved 2008-10-27. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  12. ^ Ian Cunningham (3 December 2008). "Windows 7 Build Numbers".
  13. ^ Steven Levy (3 February 2007). "Bill Gates on Vista and Apple's 'Lying' Ads".
  14. ^ Bill Gates (12 May 2007). "Bill Gates: Japan—Windows Digital Lifestyle Consortium".
  15. ^ Sinofsky, Steven (15 December, 2008). "Continuing our discussion on performance". Engineering Windows 7. Microsoft. Retrieved 2008-12-18. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ Marius Oiaga (24 June 2008). "Windows 7 Will Not Inherit the Incompatibility Issues of Vista".
  17. ^ a b Dignan, Larry (2008). "Ballmer: It's ok to wait until Windows 7; Yahoo still 'makes sense'; Google Apps 'primitive'". Retrieved 2008-10-17. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  18. ^ http://www.osnews.com/story/20703/Windows_7_Beta_1_Leaked
  19. ^ http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=3236&page=2
  20. ^ Graham-Smith, Daniel (2009). "Follow-up: Benchmarking Windows 7". Retrieved 2009-1-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  21. ^ Pennington, Kenneth (2009). "Windows 7 64-Bit Beta Hits the Web". Retrieved 2009-1-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  22. ^ "The Windows 7 Beta Kicks Off This Week". 2009. Retrieved 2009-1-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  23. ^ "Update on Windows 7 Beta Availability — Windows 7 Team Blog — The Windows Blog".
  24. ^ "Here's where we stand — Windows Team Blog".
  25. ^ "Availability for Windows 7 beta extended — Neowin".
  26. ^ http://www.windowsvienna.com/windows-7-takes-more-advantage-of-multi-core-cpus-a24.html
  27. ^ http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1612
  28. ^ http://www.pctipsbox.com/windows-7-to-get-parallel-processing-tweaks/
  29. ^ http://vista.blorge.com/2008/09/30/windows-7-enters-parallel-universe/
  30. ^ Gruener, Wolfgang (2008-01-16). "TG Daily — Windows Vista successor scheduled for a H2 2009 release?". TG Daily. Retrieved 2008-01-17.
  31. ^ ThinkNext.net: Screenshots from a blogger with Windows 7 M1
  32. ^ Softpedia (2008). "Windows 7 User Interface – The Superbar (Enhanced Taskbar)". Retrieved 2008-11-12. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  33. ^ Windows 7: Some Minor Improvements, No Game Changer
  34. ^ "Windows 7: Web Services in Native Code". PDC 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-26.
  35. ^ "Windows 7: Deploying Your Application with Windows Installer (MSI) and ClickOnce". PDC 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-26.
  36. ^ "Windows 7: Writing World-Ready Applications". PDC 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-26.
  37. ^ "WinHEC 2008 GRA-583: Display Technologies". Microsoft. 2008-11-06. Retrieved 2008-12-04.
  38. ^ "Windows 7 High Color Support". Softpedia. 2008-11-26. Retrieved 2008-12-05.
  39. ^ "Windows 7 SSD support for netbooks".
  40. ^ Steven Sinofsky's clarification on removal of classic Start menu and taskbar
  41. ^ Thurrott, Paul (12 November, 2008). "Windows 7 feature focus". Retrieved 2008-11-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
  42. ^ Storage Networking Platform Features in Windows 7/Server 2008 R2
  43. ^ "Windows 7 On Screen Keyboard on YouTube". 12 January, 2009. Retrieved 2009-01-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  44. ^ Keizer, Gregg F. (2008). "Windows 7 eyed by antitrust regulators". Retrieved 2008-03-19. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  45. ^ Humphries, Matthew (2009). "Windows 7 may ship with rival browsers because of antitrust regulators". Retrieved 2009-01-27. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  46. ^ LeBlanc, Brandon (2009-02-04). "A closer look at the Windows 7 SKUs". windowsteamblog.com. Retrieved 2009-02-05.
  47. ^ http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62049967,00.htm
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