Windows 7

It’s Official: Windows 7 Shipping Mid-2009

We’ve all sort of known that Windows 7 would be released in 2009, but Microsoft made the firmest statements to date on the topic. In a technical session on Thursday, the company outlined that Windows 7 software would ship mid-year 2009 with pre-configured Windows 7 systems shipping in time for the 2009 holiday season. (Note,…

Tech News Mark Wilson

Windows 7 Will Only Have One ‘Ready’ Sticker, Down From Vista’s Four

After receiving endless flak for their silly tiered Vista Compatibility scheme, Microsoft has decided to issue a single “Windows 7 Capable” sticker for hardware that works with the new OS. That means no more “Windows Home Basic”, “Windows Ready”, “Certified for Windows” and “Windows Ready When You Are, Asshole” labels slapped on every piece of…

Tech News John Herrman

Windows 7 Loading 20% Faster than Vista

Good news, everyone! According to some real-world testing by Lifehacker, Windows 7 is booting 20% faster than Vista. On an identical system, Vista Ultimate took 37 seconds to boot from operating system selection screen to the login screen. Meanwhile, Windows 7 took just 27 seconds…the exact same time as Windows XP.But actually, since Windows 7…

Tech News Mark Wilson

Giz Explains: What’s So Awesome About 64-Bit?

The phrase “64-bit” has been tossed around lately, the most it’s been since the Nintendo 64. If you haven’t heard it, pay attention. One of the most important steps forward in computer power is happening right under your nose, but most people don’t know thanks to the sneaky efforts of Microsoft and Apple. Though fully…

Tech News Matt Buchanan

Hidden ‘Aero Shake’ Feature Cleans Up the Clutter in Windows 7

Surprisingly, a really cool feature of Windows 7 called ‘Aero Shake’ has gone virtually unnoticed amidst all of the hype. It is not groundbreaking or anything, but having the ability to minimize all background windows with a simple shake of the mouse seems like a smart, useful idea to me. Check out the video and…

Tech News Sean Fallon

25 Features You Definitely Won’t See in Windows 7

For this week’s Photoshop Contest, I asked you guys to imagine some Windows 7 features that we’re not likely to see come its release next year. And while we have the predictable barrage of Blue Screen of Death jokes, we also have a bunch of other clever and awesome takes on Microsoft’s next big OS.…

Tech News Adam Frucci

Microsoft’s Guided Tour of the Windows 7 Taskbar

As we pointed out in our Windows 7 walkthrough, one of the biggest improvements to the UI is the taskbar. It is hard to explain new features like “Peek” and how the functionality of the taskbar has evolved without actually showing you how it works—so this video should do a lot to clear things up.…

Tech News Sean Fallon

Use Photoshop to Come Up with Some Unlikely Windows 7 Features

So this week we’ve been getting a nice first look at Windows 7, and it looks to have some pretty great features. But what about the features that Microsoft would never, ever put in their new OS? Those are for us to come up with using our good friend Photoshop, like my example above of…

Tech News Adam Frucci

Giz Explains: Why Windows 7 Will Smash Vista

Windows 7 is what Windows Vista should have been, what we hoped it would be. The Batman Begins to Vista’s Batman and Robin. While superficially both are kinda the same (Batman!), there’s a completely different thought process at work. Our walkthrough and videos showed you how the new user experience is something to be excited…

Tech News Matt Buchanan

Windows 7 Taskbar, ‘Peek’ and Multitouch Gestures Caught On Video

Our in-depth preview of Windows 7 mentioned a few major features that didn’t quite make it into the copy we tested, but the wily crew at Chilean site FayerWayer have caught a more advanced build on (sickeningly shaky) video. Most notably, the long hands-on shows off the new dock-esque taskbar, with decent task grouping, contextual…

Tech News John Herrman

Microsoft Bringing Office Suite Online

It was a long time coming, but Microsoft has finally announced that they will be bringing lightweight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote online. Like existing services from Google and Zoho, users will be able to use a browser to create, edit, and collaborate on Office documents. The online version is also designed to…

Tech News Sean Fallon

Microsoft Shows Windows 7 Running on Asus EeePC

Windows honcho Steve “Don’t Blame Me For Vista, I Was Running Office At The Time” Sinofsky hinted that he would whip out an impressively low-powered device to show how skinny Windows 7 can get. Sure enough, today at his keynote at PDC 2008, he waved a Asus EeePC running Win 7 with a 1GHz processor…

Tech News Wilson Rothman

Windows 7 Walkthrough, Boot Video and Impressions

Like Elvis in ’68, Microsoft is itching for a “comeback,” and Windows 7 is the perfect excuse. In fact, this week in LA at the Professional Developers Conference, Windows 7 officially shoved Vista aside. Having suffered through the often deserved criticisms of that ill-fated OS installment, Microsoft’s people are thrilled to tears to be able…

Tech News Wilson Rothman

Windows 7 Pre-Beta Details Leak

Microsoft is not including all the new Windows 7 goodies in the pre-beta version that will be distributed at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles. However, the good news is that they are putting in a lot of new stuff that will have fans of the operating system excited until the public beta hits-if…

Tech News Jesus Diaz

Windows 7 to Debut By Mid-2009?

Microsoft reporter queen bee Mary Jo Foley has put together a few signs suggesting that Windows 7 may debut earlier than anyone imagined—in the first half of next year. While it’s been expected that it’ll be released to manufacturing by the end of the year, a few signs point to it being on track to…

Tech News Matt Buchanan

New “I’m a Mac” Ads Stop Attacking Vista, Start Attacking Microsoft’s Marketing

Apple and Microsoft have been having this bizarre pissing match for a few years now, but this new set of ads marks confirms what previous volleys seemed to imply: these companies have no intention of actually talking about their products. Microsoft’s feel-good “I’m Joe the Plumber and I’m a PC” campaign was about as substantive…

Tech News John Herrman

Ballmer: It’s Okay to Wait for Windows 7, Which “Will Be Vista, But a Lot Better”

Say what you want about Steve Ballmer, but whenever he opens his mouth, good stuff comes out. Like that Microsoft is sorta kinda at peace with people skipping Vista for Windows 7: “If people want to wait they really can… but I’d definitely deploy Vista.” He was talking about the enterprise space in this horrible…

Tech News Matt Buchanan

Microsoft Settles on “Windows 7” For Official Name of Next OS

Here we were, thinking Windows 7 was simply a codename (and a fairly boring one at that—where’s Longhorn? Whistler?). Now, on the official Windows Vista Blog, MS has came out and declared “Windows 7” the official name of Vista’s successor, dev-only pre-betas of which will be released at the upcoming WinHEC and PDC developer conferences…

Tech News John Mahoney

User Account Control Will Be Less Maddening in Windows 7

Microsoft has realized having a feature specifically designed to annoy you is not so great for user happiness, so they’re redesigning User Account Control in Windows 7 to be less horrible. Specifically, there will be fewer pop-ups (since there won’t be as many dupes, like from IE) and when the red flag goes up, it’ll…

Tech News Matt Buchanan

Fake Boy Band Ushers In Windows 7, Makes Vista Years Seem Classy

Apparently, a simple blog post about getting Windows 7 early by attending Microsoft’s Professional Developer Conference (PDC) in October or the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in November wasn’t enough. No, Microsoft had to drive the point home by getting a fake boy band to sing a song about PDC, and the free 160GB HDD—containing…

Tech News Wilson Rothman

It’s Official: Windows 7 Shipping Mid-2009

Windows 7 Will Only Have One ‘Ready’ Sticker, Down From Vista’s Four

Windows 7 Loading 20% Faster than Vista

Giz Explains: What’s So Awesome About 64-Bit?

Hidden ‘Aero Shake’ Feature Cleans Up the Clutter in Windows 7

25 Features You Definitely Won’t See in Windows 7

Microsoft’s Guided Tour of the Windows 7 Taskbar

Use Photoshop to Come Up with Some Unlikely Windows 7 Features

Giz Explains: Why Windows 7 Will Smash Vista

Windows 7 Taskbar, ‘Peek’ and Multitouch Gestures Caught On Video

Microsoft Bringing Office Suite Online

Microsoft Shows Windows 7 Running on Asus EeePC

Windows 7 Walkthrough, Boot Video and Impressions

Windows 7 Pre-Beta Details Leak

Windows 7 to Debut By Mid-2009?

New “I’m a Mac” Ads Stop Attacking Vista, Start Attacking Microsoft’s Marketing

Ballmer: It’s Okay to Wait for Windows 7, Which “Will Be Vista, But a Lot Better”

Microsoft Settles on “Windows 7” For Official Name of Next OS

User Account Control Will Be Less Maddening in Windows 7

Fake Boy Band Ushers In Windows 7, Makes Vista Years Seem Classy

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