Microsoft chief executive officer Steve Ballmer unveiled
the first widely available public beta of Windows 7, earlier today
at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
In the
opening keynote at CES, Ballmer demonstrated Windows 7, and
Windows Live, the company's internet service for home users.
Ballmer said he was optimistic that the digital age would not be
curbed by the economic crisis. He said, "No matter what happens
with the economy, or how long this recession lasts, I believe our
digital lives will only continue to get richer. There really is no
turning back from the connected world and the pace of technological
advance bringing people closer together."
Windows 7, the next major version of the company's desktop
operating system will run on existing Vista-ready hardware.
Significantly, Microsoft aims to ensure Vista applications run on
Windows 7 without modification. In terms of hardware support
Microsoft said Vista-ready PCs and notebook PCs should be able to
run Windows 7. Additionally, Microsoft said the operating system
will also be able to run on currently shipping netbook devices,
which currently run either Windows XP or Linux.
Windows 7 includes touch-screen technology called multi-touch,
which allows users to move, drag and drop, highlight and resize
objects on the graphical user interface by moving their their
fingers across the screen.
Bitlocker hard disc encryption, which was introduced in Vista
has now been extended to support removable discs like USB memory
sticks. Vista or Windows 7 will be required to encrypt the discs,
but Windows XP systems will be able to decrypt the data, Microsoft
said.
In terms of user interface changes, Microsoft has added a right
mouse click context menu to the Windows task bar, that allows users
to access some of the common functions in the application direct
from the task bar. In addition, when a user hovers the mouse over
an application in the task bar, Windows 7, previews that
application.
The beta version of Windows 7 can be
downloaded from
January 9. Windows 7 is due to ship by the end of 2009.
Windows Live
Ballmer also demonstrated how Microsoft was moving forward with
its internet strategy, following the failure to acquire Yahoo last
year. Ballmer unveiled the final version of Windows Live Essential,
the company's free online system which includes Hotmail webmail and
MSN Messenger and Windows Live Photo Gallery. Ballmer said,
"Windows Live has become an essential companion to Windows and your
PC. It is our cloud solution for communicating, sharing, and
keeping your life in sync across the PC, the phone, and the
Web."
Windows Live Essentials is integrated with popular Web 2.0
communities including Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. Ballmer's demo
showed how Windows Live users could receive updates from their
Facebook friends, send and receive Twitter postings and view and
upload images into Flickr, direct from Windows Live, without having
to login to these services separately.