Windows 7
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, and media center PCs.
Microsoft stated in 2007 that it is planning Windows 7 development for a
three-year time frame starting after the release of its predecessor,
Windows Vista, but that the final release date will be determined by
product quality.
Unlike its predecessor, Windows 7 is intended to be an incremental
upgrade with the goal of being fully compatible with existing device
drivers, applications and hardware.
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, and performance improvements.
History
In 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.
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
Microsoft co-founder 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 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 was also "reset" in September 2004.
Naming
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 20 July 2007 that "the internal
name for the next version of the Windows Client OS" was Windows 7, a
name that had been reported by some sources months before. On 13 October
2008, it was announced that Windows 7 would also be the official name of
the operating system.
Mike Nesh, Microsoft's vice-president of Windows product management
said:
The decision to use the name Windows 7 is about simplicity. Simply
put, this is the seventh release of Windows, so therefore Windows 7 just
makes sense.
Coming up with an all-new 'aspirational' name does not do justice to
what we are trying to achieve, which is to stay firmly rooted in our
aspirations for Windows Vista, while evolving and refining the
substantial investments in platform technology in Windows Vista into the
next generation of Windows.
Features
Windows 7 includes a number of new features, such as
advances in touch and handwriting recognition, support for
virtual hard disks, improved performance on multi-core
processors, improved boot performance, DirectAccess, and
kernel improvements.
Windows 7 adds support for systems using multiple
heterogeneous graphics cards from different vendors
(Heterogeneous Multi-adapter), a new version of Windows
Media Center, a Gadget for Windows Media Center, improved
media features, the XPS Essentials Pack and Windows
PowerShell being included, 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, and Display.
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 default setting for User Account Control in Windows 7
has been criticized for allowing untrusted software to be
launched with elevated privileges by exploiting a trusted
application. Microsoft's Windows kernel engineer Mark
Russinovich acknowledged the problem, but noted that there
are other vulnerabilities that do not rely on the new
setting.
The taskbar has seen the biggest visual changes, where the
Quick Launch toolbar has been replaced with pinning
applications to the taskbar. Buttons for pinned applications
are integrated with the task buttons.
These buttons also enable the Jump Lists feature to allow
easy access to common tasks. The revamped taskbar also
allows the reordering of taskbar buttons. To the far right
of the system clock is a small rectangular button that
serves as the Show desktop icon.
This button is part of the new feature in Windows 7 called
Aero Peek. Hovering over this button makes all visible
windows transparent for a quick look at the desktop. In
touch-enabled displays such as touch screens, tablet PCs,
etc., this button is slightly wider to accommodate being
pressed with a finger.
Clicking this button minimizes all windows, and clicking it
a second time restores them. Additionally, there is a
feature named Aero Snap, that automatically maximizes a
window when it is dragged to either the top or left/right
edges of the screen.
This also allows users to snap documents or files on either
side of the screen to compare them. When a user moves
windows that are maximized, the system restores their
previous state automatically.
This functionality is also accomplished with keyboard
shortcuts. Unlike in Windows Vista, window borders and the
taskbar do not turn opaque when a window is maximized with
Windows Aero applied. Instead, they remain transparent.
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), new features to
shorten application install times, reduced UAC prompts,
simplified development of installation packages, and
improved globalization support through a new Extended
Linguistic Services API.
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.
Microsoft is also implementing better support for Solid
State Drives, including the new TRIM command, and Windows 7
will be able to identify a Solid State Drive uniquely.
Microsoft is also planning to support USB 3.0 in a
subsequent patch, although support would not be included in
the initial release due to delays in the finalization of the
standard.
Internet Spades, Internet Backgammon and Internet Checkers,
which were removed from Windows Vista, were restored in
Windows 7. Windows 7 will include Internet Explorer 8 and
Windows Media Player 12.
Users will also be able to disable many more Windows
components than was possible in Windows Vista.
New additions to this list of components include Internet
Explorer, Windows Media Player, Windows Media Center,
Windows Search, and the Windows Gadget Platform.
Windows 7 includes 13 additional sound schemes, titled
Afternoon, Calligraphy, Characters, Cityscape, Delta,
Festival, Garden, Heritage, Landscape, Quirky, Raga,
Savanna, and Sonata.
A new version of Virtual PC, Windows Virtual PC Beta is
available for Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and
Ultimate editions.
It allows multiple Windows environments, including Windows
XP Mode, to run on the same machine, requiring the use of
Intel VT-x or AMD-V. Windows XP Mode runs Windows XP in a
virtual machine and redirects displayed applications running
in Windows XP to the Windows 7 desktop.
Furthermore Windows 7 supports the mounting of a virtual
hard disk (VHD) as a normal data storage, and the bootloader
delivered with Windows 7 can boot the Windows system from a
VHD.
The Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) of Windows 7 is also
enhanced to support real-time multimedia application
including video playback and 3D games. That means that
Direct X 10 can be used in a remote desktop environment.
The three application limit will be removed from Windows 7
Starter.
Windows 7 is said to be capable of running Windows programs
and games, such as South Park Rally, that neither XP nor
Vista supported for various reasons.
Windows 7 is available for general purchase on October
22nd, 2009.
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(*information sourced from Wikipedia)
