Yesterday was back end, today is front end.

Windows 7 will be for bridging the latest hardware to the customers.  It will always be updated.

Showing enhancements to the taskbar in windows 7.  Things look really much more well done. Change order of things in the taskbar.  Can manage window state from each composited window image on the task bar.

Explorer now lets you mount various different drives and stuff into a single view.  Basically, there is a library setup.

New sharing options that connect you to all home systems and printers automatically.

Search allows searching on other computers, and you can "mount" results on other systems and access them as local.


Automatic switching between default printers when roaming.

Gadgets can be anywhere on the desktop.

New options for selecting backgrounds.

Explicit control of what is in the system tray.  You can rearrange them too.

Action center centralizes all taskbar menus.

Touch is being integrated.  Example, the HP TouchSmart.  there is support for gestures (forward and back shown).

Windows Live Essentials / Windows Live Services: sharing across many transport and devices.

Roaming seems to be around "home groups".  Wifi will figure it out.

Developing for 7.  Libraries, multi-touch, ink, speech, directx, jump lists, ribbon user interface.


Fundamentals
Decrease: Memory (referense set, graphics), Disk I/O (registry reads, indexer), Power (dvd playback, panel, timers)
Increase: Speed (Fast boot, device ready), Responsiveness (start menu, taskbar), Scale (256 processors)

Bitlocker on memory sticks
Can use VHDs!

can boot from windows 7 vhd.

Win-P can be used to manage multi monitor and external.

Multi-monitor in RDP.

Win 7 beta early 2009.

I'll put pictures up during the day.

New windows explorer.  Notice how the "folders" view now looks a lot more like that on the Mac.  Very nice, and about time.

Desktop gadgets:


Working with other devices:


Messages center.  Note that you can tell taskbar items not to show popups and only in here:


This is an example of selecting a background.  When selecting, the windows in from will become translucent so that you can see what it looks like:


Selecting a desktop:


Installed devices:


Touch: