http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090419/ ... the_scenes
Behind the scenes with Windows 7
* By JESSICA MINTZ, AP Technology Writer - Sun Apr 19, 2009 2:07PM EDT
REDMOND, Wash. -
To design Windows 7, Microsoft analyzed billions of pieces of data. It studied exactly what PC users do in front of their screens. It tallied hundreds of thousands of Windows surveys. It got feedback from people all over the world who tried different versions of the software.
As a result, every change or new feature in Windows 7 comes with a back story. Here is a sampling of things you'll see in the next operating system and explanations of how each came about.
• New feature: You decide the left-to-right order of icons in the task bar at the bottom of your screen.
• Back story: Microsoft's research showed Vista users commonly launching a series of programs, then closing and immediately reopening some. Microsoft realized that these people wanted their programs to appear in the same order on the task bar every time.
• New feature: Right-click on a task bar icon and get a "jump list," a menu of important or frequently used options for the program.
• Back story: Microsoft had resisted the idea of hiding a key feature behind a right click, worried people wouldn't find it. But the data showed most people right-click on icons to see what that might do.
• New feature: Drag one open window to the left side of the screen, then another to the right side to line them up so they are the same size and side by side.
• Back story: Microsoft couldn't initially figure out why people were spending so much time resizing windows and dragging them around. It turned out that users were trying to give themselves a side-by-side view of documents for easy comparison.
• New feature: Libraries, or virtual folders that have shortcuts to files that are actually stored in many different places on a hard drive or home network.
• Back story: From its Vista data, Microsoft could see people's photos, music and other files were swelling in number and stashed all over the place, not organized into the dedicated folders Microsoft had set up.
• New feature: "Shake" an open window with your mouse to make all the other ones "minimize" into the task bar.
• Back story: Microsoft's research showed that people often had six or even 10 windows open at once, which gets distracting. Shake is one of several features designed to help people tame all the open windows.
• New feature: Move your mouse to the bottom-right corner to make all your windows temporarily transparent. Then click the mouse, and all the windows minimize.
• Back story: What's notable here is what Microsoft didn't do. There's no tutorial or bubble advertising the feature, a small step toward making Windows 7 quieter than Vista. "We want people to confidently explore the system," said Sam Moreau, a user experience manager.
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http://www.infoworld.com/d/windows/micr ... dows-7-930
Microsoft plans 10 fake 'updates' for Windows 7
By Gregg Keizer
Created 2009-05-11 04:47 AM
Microsoft plans to test Windows 7's update mechanism by feeding users of the just-issued Release Candidate as many as 10 fake updates in the coming week, the company said Friday.
It will be the second time that Microsoft has released phony updates for Windows 7; in February, it tested the beta [1] by delivering five bogus patches.
People running Windows 7 RC, which publicly debuted late on May 4, will be offered the mock updates beginning on Tuesday, May 12, said Brandon LeBlanc, a Microsoft spokesman. Microsoft wants to "verify our ability to deliver and manage updating of Windows 7 in certain real-life scenarios," LeBlanc explained in a blog post Friday evening [6].
As before, the updates do not actually deliver any new features or fixes, but replace existing system files with exact duplicates.
Unlike the February test, however, this time many of the updates will install automatically, according to a second blog entry on the Microsoft Update [7] site. One of the updates will also test a new notification feature, said the update blog. "[It] provides detailed information about available updates that need to be installed manually," Microsoft said. "Windows 7 RC users will be prompted to install this update and provided more information about this feature -- it will not install automatically."
Users will also need to go to Windows Update and manually install the updates that don't install automatically, the update team added.
To decline the test updates, users must set the Windows Update control panel to something other than the recommended "Install updates automatically," then right-click each fake update that appears and select "Hide update" to delete it from the list.
Microsoft has already released one legitimate update for Windows 7 RC. On Thursday, the company pushed a patch for a major bug [8] that had slipped through testing. If left unfixed, the bug can cripple applications or block them installing properly, Microsoft said in a support document.
The fix was delivered through Windows Update starting Thursday. Computers running Windows 7 RC that have Automatic Updates set download and install patches should have already received and installed the bug fix.
Microsoft publicly launched Windows 7 RC [9] last week, several days after it posted the preview on MSDN and TechNet, the company's developer and professional IT subscription services.
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http://www.infoworld.com/d/windows/free ... tdowns-685
Free Windows 7 to end early with shutdowns
By Oliver Garnham
Created 2009-05-07 09:11 AM
Microsoft [1] has announced that the Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) [2] will automatically shut down on a regular basis months before the final public preview is due to expire next year.
The software giant had previously promised that the Windows 7 RC, which is available now for free, would work until August 1, 2010. However, the company plans to take a heavy-handed approach to encouraging people to upgrade to the full retail version from next March."For the RC, bi-hourly shutdowns will begin March 1, 2010," said spokesman Brandon LeBlanc [3]. "You will be alerted to install a released version of Windows and your PC will shut down automatically every 2 hours.
[ Previously Microsoft said it would let users run Windows 7 RC for more than a year [4]. | Get the analysis and insights that only Randall C. Kennedy can provide on Windows tech in InfoWorld's Enterprise Desktop blog [5] and Technology: Windows newsletter [6]. And download our free Windows performance-monitoring tool [7]. ]
"On June 1, 2010, if you are still on the Windows 7 RC, your licence for the Windows 7 RC will expire and the non-genuine experience is triggered," he added, warning Windows 7 RC users that at that point, the copy will be marked as bogus, with on-screen nags and a black background.
With automatic shutdowns due to start on March 1, 2010, those who have downloaded the Windows RC have 10 months to play with the OS before it starts to pester them to upgrade.
That puts Windows 7 on a similar pre-release schedule to Windows Vista. In 2007, Vista RC1 and RC2 started rebooting on June 1, 9.5 and 9 months, respectively, after they were released.