Awesome Windows 7 Resources

With Windows 7 now available worldwide, I wanted to share some resources available to help IT Pros become more proficient with Windows 7 and consumers more savvy about new support resources for Windows 7. Microsoft Learning has developed a wide range of training and resources for IT Pros that address the benefits and key technical aspects of Windows 7. With these resources, IT Pros can prepare for deployments and become Windows 7 experts within in their organization. These resources include: The Windows 7 Learning site with information, tools and resources to help people get up and running on Windows 7, such as Learning Snacks, Learning Plans, certifications currently available on Windows 7, and resources for classroom and online training. The Career Campaign site that provides guidance, career paths, special offers and certifications for common IT job roles. Through Learning Plans and special offers, IT pros can train to get certified on Windows Server, Windows client technologies, Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SQL Server. Individuals can chart their course from their current skill level to their desired job role and skill level, from beginner through experts, with clear guidance on classes, upgrades and newest releases, along with special offers that will help individuals meet their career goals. Special offers from Microsoft make it easier for individuals who are getting started in their careers, changing job roles or advancing within their organizations get the training they need. This includes limited-time offers and discounts on training and certification, making it easier to embark on a career course, such as: discounts of up to 25% on certification exams, Career Packages that include classroom training, a Certification exam and a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate (available through select Certified Partners for Learning Solutions) and discounts on e-Learning collections for self-paced study. Springboard Series on TechNet is a GREAT place for IT Pros to Discover & Explore, Pilot & Deploy and Manage Windows 7. Be sure to keep your eyes on the Springboard Series Blog too. Since many IT Pros serve double-duty as the IT expert for their friends and family, there are support tools available in and around Windows 7 that make it easier for them to help consumers address their issues. Detailed on Microsofts PressPass site, these resources provide end-to-end Windows 7 support that includes built-in self-healing and support tools, easy-to-use automated and scripted solutions and customer support through new social media forums, including: Windows Update: Automatically updates software to help prevent problems. Windows Action Center: includes more than 20 automated troubleshooters that fix more than 150 common problems. Scripted diagnostics and solutions: through Fix IT solve common software problems with the click of a button. Online Support: through Microsoft Answers provides peer to peer help, guidance from customer support experts and Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs). In the moment help: through tweets to the @MicrosoftHelps Twitter account. Easier, more intuitive online resources such as the Windows Help and How To center and the solution centers available on support.microsoft.com . For more information about the value of training and certification, and to keep up with new Windows 7 training resources, visit Born to Learn; and for more information about the consumer support resources available in Windows 7, please visit support.microsoft.com. Special thanks to the folks at Microsoft Learning and Microsoft Customer Service and Support (CSS) for reaching out to me and compiling these awesome resources to share with you today.

Now Available: Security Baselines for Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8

Now that Windows 7 is available, are you looking for some security baseline recommendations from the experts? Then here’s another timely release from the Microsoft Solution Accelerators team! Today, new security baselines for Windows® 7 and Windows® Internet Explorer® 8 are available for download. Over the past few months, the Solution Accelerators team collaborated with Microsoft security experts, multiple government agencies worldwide, and a large community of IT security professionals to develop and test these new security baselines.All of these baselines are free for you to use. In case you are not familiar with all of the security baselines available for Microsoft products, they ship as part of the Security Compliance Management Toolkit (SCMT) Series. The SCMT helps you to plan, deploy, and monitor security baselines for Windows® operating systems, Internet Explorer, and 2007 Microsoft® Office applications. It contains background information about compliance, and planning advice about how to automate security compliance. It also refers you to other tools and guidance that you can use to establish and deploy a security baseline, and then monitor and maintain compliance with your established configuration. Where do you start? At a high level, security compliance consists of four basic steps: Plan how to meet security baseline requirements. Deploy security baseline configurations. Monitor security baseline configurations. Remediate security baseline configurations. The tools, guidance, and recommendations in the SCMT help you through each step of this process and give you the support to make key decisions about security baseline settings for your specific environment. Here’s what you get: Security guide – The toolkits include new and updated security guides for Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Microsoft Office 2007 SP1, and Internet Explorer 8. The guidance provides you with best practices and automated tools to help you plan and deploy your security baselines. Attack Surface Reference workbook – A resource that lists the changes introduced as server roles are installed on computers running Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. Security Baseline Settings workbook – A resource that lists all of the prescribed settings for each of the preconfigured security baselines that the guides recommend. Security Baseline XML – XML files that allow you to consume the data defined in the security baseline settings workbooks. GPOAccelerator tool – A tool that you can use to create all of the Group Policy objects (GPOs) you need to deploy your chosen security configuration. This release also supports creating security configurations on computers not joined to a domain. Baseline Compliance Management Overview – The overview discusses best practices on how to monitor security baselines for Windows operating systems, Office applications, and Internet Explorer 8. DCM Configuration Pack User Guide – A step-by-step prescriptive user guide about how to use Configurations Packs with the DCM feature in Configuration Manager 2007 R2. DCM Configuration Packs – Configuration Packs that provide prescriptive security information, which you can use to check the compliance of systems in your environment. What should you do next? Learn more about the Security Compliance Management Toolkit Series. Download the Security Compliance Management Toolkit Series. Find other Windows 7 Solution Accelerators here: Windows Desktop Solution Accelerators. The Solution Accelerators team is developing a new tool called the Security Compliance Manager. It will help you manage your security and compliance process for the most widely used Microsoft technologies. Join the Beta review program and provide your feedback on the features you want most. Get all the step by step guides, whitepapers, how to’s and screen casts on deploying and managing Windows 7 in your environment from the Springboard Series on TechNet.

Windows Home Server grows as your needs grow

November 3, 2009 at 1:15 pm

If you look back at posts from several weeks ago, I wrote about the Top 10 Reasons to use Windows Home Server. Since then, I have been explaining each bullet in more detail including backup and restore , installing your home server , and connecting to friends and family through Windows Home Servers Remote Access. Today, I will tell you a little more about item number 5 on the list - Windows Home Servers Drive Extender and how it can provide an unlimited amount of space for your large collection of recorded Family Guy episodes or the thousands or pictures that are sitting unprotected on your PC. With Windows Home Server, storage space grows as your needs and digital possessions grow. Thanks to Windows Home Server Drive Extender , you are able to add internal or external hard drives of any size so which will create an unlimited amount of storage space for your HD movies, pictures, or huge collection of Family Guy episodes. Users will no longer have worry about disk drive letters (C:, D:, E:, etc. etc.) as they add more hard drives to their home server, since Windows Home Server treats the disk space as a large pool of available space. Windows Home Server also monitors the health of each hard drive that is added. The lights on the outside of the server will turn Red if a drive is failing, Purple if there's a drive but it's not configured and Blue if it's configured and healthy. *Screen shot of a Windows Home Server with over 3TB of space In a recent satisfaction survey completed by Windows Home Server users, we found that 54% of people using the English version of Windows Home Server have 4 or more hard drives connected to their server! Some more fun facts about how people today are getting the most out of their Windows Home Servers Drive Extender include: The largest number of hard drives currently attached to a home server is 30, there are lots and lots of people with more than 10 hard drives attached to their home servers The largest amount of available disk space that we have seen (so far) is: 36.603516 terabytes The largest amount of used disk space that we have seen (so far) is: 24.093750 terabytes *Fans in a home-built Windows Home Server that are being used to cool 13 hard drives. Windows Home Server Drive Extender provides the reliability benefits of RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) without the complexity. Windows Home Server supports reliability by duplicating designated shared folders so important data (e.g. your Photos, Music, etc.) will be stored on separate hard drives helping to provide protection against hard drive failure. Folder Duplication is configurable on a per shared folder basis, so a given shared folder can have multiple copies, with each one being stored on a separate hard drive. How is it different from RAID solutions? Any hard drive, any time. You are not restricted to simply adding more hard drives of the same type and size. When you want to grow your home server storage, you just buy whatever hard drive you like and add it. Internal and external hard drives can be used to grow your storage. No space in your home server case? No problem, plug in one or more USB 2.0 or FireWire hard drives. Hard drive removal, as explained above. With time, it will be important to remove the older smaller hard drives and put in new larger hard drives so you can store more stuff. To see how easy it is to add and remove a hard drive first hand, take a look at the screen cast below: -Nicole

Springboard Series Blog Migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7

Every day this week long-time Springboard technical contributor and Windows deployment insider, Jeremy Chapman, will post a blog about how to think about Windows 7 deployment projects. We debated on making this a whitepaper or a feature article, but to keep things less formal, we went with a multimedia blog series. This series won't just cover steps to publish images in your Windows Deployment Services environments, instead it goes much broader into the major steps of deployment all-up; from figuring out what applications and hardware you have to migrating files, managing applications, building images, incorporating drivers and automating stuff end-to-end. Jeremy has been a veteran member of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit team and while he won't be posting the classic "1500 pages" of how-to content, he will stay on his quest for the elusive and often escalated-for "one-page paper" to migrate enterprise customers from Windows XP to Windows 7. Let's see if he can do it! Part 1 is already up and parts 2-5 are coming each day this week: The "One-Pager" for Moving from Windows XP to Windows 7 (Overview) Migrating User Files and Settings from Windows XP to Windows 7 Application Management and Preparing for a Windows 7 Deployment Choosing and Image Strategy and Building Windows 7 System Images Automating the migration from Windows XP to Windows 7 End-to-End Subscribe to the RSS feed or check back for the rest this week. If you are coming to TechEd Europe next week, Jeremy will be delivering multiple sessions on Windows deployment and application compatibility. Please let us know what you think about these blogs, the longer multimedia format and whether you would like to see other topics covered. As always, thanks for reading and I hope to see some of you next week at TechEd! Stephen Rose

NVIDIA and Windows Touch

Windows 7 will change the ways you interact with your PC. How you ask? Windows Touch. Touch refers to the way Windows lets you interact directly with a computer using a finger. Compared to using a mouse, keyboard, or pen, touch can be much more engaging, natural, and convenient. The Windows Touch technology in Windows 7 is an evolution of the technology that is rooted in Windows Vista. In Windows Vista, single-touch input improved the interaction when using the pen stylus and the mouse of earlier Tablet PC platforms. With Windows 7, users can directly manipulate their computer environment through multitouch for the first time. Users can use a variety of gestures directly on their computer screen to move data, including: Touch, or mouse-such as behavior: tap, double-tap, right-click, drag, and select. Touch gestures- such as Flicks (navigational and editing). Multitouch gestures-- such as zooming in, zooming out, panning, and rotating. A Windows 7 PC powered by NVIDIA GPUs will deliver faster, more engaging Windows Touch experiences. NVIDIA GPUs are well known for accelerating 3D interfaces. The Windows 7 Aero desktop, now designed using the DirectX 10 API and designed for Windows Touch, is no exception. From the new taskbar previews to Aero Peek, Flip, Snap, and Shake, NVIDIA GPU provides a snappy 3D experience. Windows 7 also uses the GPU to reduce memory consumption by half by eliminating the need to keep a second copy of each window in system memory. This frees up system memory for other applications and keeps your PC responsive. Multi-touch capability was designed into the core of Windows 7 and is a perfect fit for the new highly visual GPU-accelerated applications like Cooliris and Super Loiloscope. Cooliris lets you browse the web in 3D and now with the addition of Windows Touch, the experience becomes even more immersive. With Super Loiloscope you can have fun creating videos and applying effects with the touch of your finger. Touch input does not replace the keyboard and mouse, it enhances them. Touch is a natural and intuitive way to interact with you PC when you are doing common computing tasks such as: Web browsing Interacting with photos Playing games Organizing music and video (creating playlists, sorting media, and organizing content) Reading and sorting e-mail Using documents Managing a Windows workspace As you can see, your Windows 7 Touch experience will be faster, smoother, and more immersive with an NVIDIA GPU in your PC.

Moving to Windows 7

Most consumers will experience Windows 7 one of two ways, either by upgrading their existing PC or by purchasing a PC with Windows 7 preloaded. At work, most of our business customers have their own in-house IT support (or a dedicated partner that they work with) to deploy new versions of Windows. For the customers that want to upgrade their own PC (and have experience installing Windows), an overview of the process is provided below. For customers running Windows Vista: Once Windows 7 is available on October 22nd, customers will be able to upgrade from their current edition of Windows Vista to a corresponding edition of Windows 7. For example, it is fairly straightforward to upgrade from Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium or from a 32-bit version of Windows Vista to a 32-bit version of Windows 7. The process involves inserting the appropriate Windows 7 installation disc, running the setup program, and choosing the Upgrade installation option. An Upgrade is the fastest and easiest type of installation and will preserve your files, settings, and programs. For customers running Windows XP: Customers who wish to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 will need to follow a different upgrade process due to the changes in PCs since the introduction of Windows XP in 2001. To upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 you must first determine if your PC meets the minimum system requirements using the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. Assuming it meets the requirements, you can install Windows 7 using the Custom installation option. A custom installation does not preserve your files, settings or programs so you need to first back up your data to an external drive and re-install your programs once installation has completed. If you are upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 and installing it yourself, we have detailed step-by-step instructions here. If you are a business customer, please note that there are other migration options for you that include a broad range of deployment tools and guidance to assist your migration to Windows 7. This also includes solutions to assess application and hardware compatibility. Please visit the Springboard Series. For customers who want to upgrade to Windows 7: Weve received a lot of questions from our customers about getting Windows 7 before October 22nd. While you wont be able to go into a store and purchase a copy until then, you can take advantage of our pre-order option which is available now via the Microsoft Online Store as well as a variety of participating retailers. If youre an eligible college student, you can also take advantage of a sweet deal on Windows 7 for $29.99 by visiting http://www.win741.com/. And, if you have multiple PCs at home, then on October 22nd for a limited time, youll be able to get the Windows 7 Family Pack Offer, which will provide 3 Upgrade Licenses for $149.99. Look for more details on this soon. For more information on moving to Windows 7, I suggest you read our Windows 7 Upgrade FAQ which answers many of the commonly asked questions regarding moving to Windows 7.

Making Windows 7 Location Aware with u-blox Products

Last week, embedded GPS chip maker u-blox announced support for Windows 7s Sensor and Location Platform. Windows 7 has built in location awareness using the new Windows Sensor and Location Platform. PCs with u-bloxs AMY-5M chip or their PCI-5S/PCM-5S receiver cards with Windows 7 can now be location-aware with u-bloxs new Windows 7 driver available for download here. There is a u-blox GPS chip inside the Microsoft GPS dongle that ships with Streets and Trips 2009. I went out and grabbed a copy for myself to try out making Windows 7 on my laptop location-aware. I plugged the dongle in, installed the u-blox Windows 7 driver, and the GPS dongle appeared as a sensor in Windows 7. I of course enabled the u-blox GPS sensor (or location sensor). Windows 7 utilizes location-awareness in several different ways for the user. The inbox weather gadget is one. If a person has a location sensor enabled in Windows 7, the Find location automatically in the weather gadget settings can be checked. If checked, this will allow the weather gadget to utilize the Sensor and Location Platform to discover your location and display weather from your location. In my case, it accessed my location using the u-blox GPS sensor I have enabled. As you move locations with your laptop, the weather gadget will chain to your current location. If you have Streets and Trips 2009 and the Microsoft GPS dongle that comes with it, use it to make Windows 7 location-aware with the weather gadget. As more and more laptops PCs come with GPS in them, Windows 7 is designed to take advantage of location natively within the OS. This offers a great experience for people always on the move. For more information on the Windows Sensor and Location Platform in Windows 7, click here. If youre a developer, learn how to make your application location-aware with Windows 7 with these resources on the Windows Sensor and Location Platform here.

Windows Home Server, Windows 7, Xbox 360 and Windows Media Center make an appearance at Cedia 2009!

You may have the technology but are you using it? Maybe youve heard the Better Together story but you have not had a chance to really fully experience it. That is exactly what we wanted to show you at Cedia 2009. Cedia is the largest event of the year for custom installers to come and learn about new technology emerging in their industry. Think of Cedia as the CES for custom installers. Windows Home Server teamed up with Windows Media Center, Windows 7 and Xbox to demonstrate how Microsoft technologies come together in the home. The booth was designed to be a replica of your home, your home office and your office away from home. This was done in an effort to emulate real working home scenarios. The picture below illustrates the booths layout: The Office: This networking nerve center demonstrated how users can access their content in various ways in their office, away from home or away from their living room. Attendees were shown such features as centralized storage, access to content on the go, Home Group, copying TV content from one Media Center to another and remote streaming. This is also where the Windows Home Server HP MediaSmart powered the entire booth, which included 9 extended Xboxs & 6 tuners connected to the N9 Niveus high-end Media Center PC with the new AEP 2.0 technology (which allows for an increase from 5 extenders to 10 & 4 tuners to 8), with photos, videos and music content. The Niveus N9 was located in the theater room. The Bedroom: Your personal get away spot in your home should enable you access to all your content at whim. The bedroom revealed a portable Windows 7 Media Center on a Sony VAIO laptop and an Xbox 360 extender connected to a large display. Giving you the ability to watch your content, listen to a little music and even record TV without leaving the comfort of your own bed; maybe you just wanted to obtain the score of your favorite team. The Windows 7 Media Center laptop demonstrated the new Netflix tile in Windows Media Center. Family Room: With only an Xbox 360 connected to your large screen TV, you have gaming and entertainment from one device. The family room is the central place to come together and watch TV, stream movies, view photos and even play some music. With the Xbox 360, you can play a few video games while streaming music from the home server. With the recent Xbox 360 update, Netflix enables you to stream movies and TV shows from the internet! Theater Room: The theater room is probably the most impressive part of the home, aside from the Windows Home Server being in the office serving all of the music, videos and photos content. Enjoy the luxury of your surround sound while playing Blu-ray movies, enjoying television, home movies or blaring music until your ears hurt. Be amazed as 8 different tuners record content at the same time and store it on the HP MediaSmart Server powered by Windows Home Server. Travel to any of the 9 different Xbox 360s in extender mode and watch the recently recorded TV or change the channel to a more enjoyable show. Cedia Announcements: Lets talk about the announcements and some of the technology making this all possible. Windows Home Server: Power Pack 3 was a big part of the show. This enables the use of libraries in Windows 7, automatic archive of TV content (which is very important with 8 tuners capturing content constantly) and single file restore in Windows 7. The Zune and Windows Phone compression feature allowed TV content to be played on your mobile devices. It was very exciting to see attendees reactions to these new features! S1Digital announced a new Digital Entertainment Platform, which provides centralized archiving, storage and distribution of HD movies, live and recorded HD television, videos, music, photos and more. This is all based on the Windows Home Server platform. Windows Media Center: Probably one of the biggest announcements at the show was the ability to add your own Digital Cable Tuners to your PC. Before, you needed to purchase a computer with a special BIOS to be able to record digital TV. CETON showed off their new single card that has 4 tuners with-in the S1 Media Center running the theater room and an extender. This single card could record 4 channels at once. They also have a 6 channel version here. Here are a few other show announcements from Windows Media Center. To read more please visit here. Switched Digital Video (SDV) support added to Windows Media Center. End Customers Can Now Add Digital Cable Tuners With CableCARD to Their PCs Digital Cable customers can now enjoy more TV portability in Windows Media Center New Firmware for ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuners Windows Media Center Features in Windows 7 highlighted

Finalist Emails for Windows 7 Launch Parties Go Out Today

Weve had an overwhelming turn out of people signing up to host a Launch Party for Windows 7 since going live earlier this month. Starting today, finalist emails are going to those who signed up to host a Launch Party and if you dont get a finalist email, dont worry, there are still other ways to participate. If you signed up to host a Launch Party and receive the host finalist email, please read the email carefully. Receiving the finalist email doesnt mean youve been accepted to host just yet. You will need to be among the first to respond via a link within your email to be confirmed as a host. This extra step is needed due to the amazing response weve had from people interested in hosting a Launch Party. Spots to host a Launch Party are limited so we want to make sure folks who signed up are still able to host. After responding to the finalist email and confirming, you will then receive a confirmation email. Youll then be able to begin planning your Launch Party and sending out invites! If you were not accepted to host a Launch Party or live in a country where Launch Parties are unavailable to host, you can still hold a Windows 7 gathering of your own. We are providing Windows 7 tips, content, demos, and training here online for you to host your own gathering or meet-up.

Student Offer for Windows 7

Based on reader comments, I know many are college and university students. I figured I would take a moment to highlight a great deal for those folks weve announced today. For a limited time, we are offering the LOWEST PRICE ($29.99 in the US) for Windows 7 exclusively to college and university students. This offer is perfect for students who are not planning to buy a new PC but want to experience all the benefits that Windows 7 will provide. To learn more about the offer and to check eligibility, students should visit www.Win741.com. Students in the US can pre-order their copy of Windows 7 in the US starting today and students in the UK can pre-order their copy beginning on September 30th (pre-ordered copies will be available for download beginning October 22nd). Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Korea and Mexico can participate in this offer on October 22nd (Windows 7 GA). Windows 7 is easy to use and great to take on the go to class as well as staying in touch with friends and family via Windows Live! Windows 7 gives university students the tools they need manage their work (including an easy to use design, the ability to easily connect to devices, and take on the go to class and the library), stay in touch with friends (with Windows Live Essentials) and have fun (including Windows gaming, Windows Live Movie Maker and Windows Media Center to interact with TV and movies).

New Zune Software Update for Zune 4.0 Optimized for Windows 7!

Today, Zune 4.0 hits. Zune 4.0 comes with awesome new devices (the Zune HD), new software, and new online services. For the complete announcement for todays release, see this press release [Link coming soon] or see this post by my Zune pal Brian Seitz over on Zune Insider. Theres been a lot of talk about the amazing Zune HD. Having the honor of using one for the last few weeks, I can say it truly is one great device. However, I want to talk about whats in new Zune software update. The Zune Team has put a lot of work into the software update including optimizing it for Windows 7! More on that in a bit The Zune 4.0 Software Update brings in several key new features designed to make discovering new music and playing music in your collection even better. Quickplay is a new screen in the Zune software that gives you quick access to your content. Here, you can pin your favorite content (up to 6 items), see new music and videos added to your collection, and view your history of recently played music, podcasts, and videos. Quickplay also showcases 5 Smart DJ mixes of your favorite artists or bands you pick. Speaking of Smart DJ A Smart DJ mix automatically creates a playlist of music from your collection - but goes the extra mile by ALSO mixing in music from Zune Marketplace. These Smart DJ mixes are available by right-clicking on an artist, a song, or an album in your collection. When a Smart DJ mix is created, it pulls in music from your own collection and also the Zune Marketplace. If you have a Zune Pass, all songs including those from Zune Marketplace will play for you. If you dont have a Zune Pass, suggested songs in the Smart DJ mix will be grayed-out. If you prefer not to see suggested music from Zune Marketplace in your Smart DJ mixes, you can unselect a radio button and only your personal collection will be listed. You can also choose to save the Smart DJ queue as a playlist, with finite control in the edit playlist setting, for listening at a later date. The below screenshot of the Smart DJ mix for Weezer playing shows what playing a Smart DJ mix looks like with the options to save as a playlist and the ability to choose not to play songs from the Zune Marketplace. But wait, theres more! The Zune software now comes with Mini Player Mode. This allows you to keep the player always on top of other applications while browsing the Web, checking email, or whatever else you might be doing on your PC. And if Mini Player Mode doesnt do it for you, you can also add playback controls to the Windows Taskbar (right-click on taskbar, choose Toolbars, and then choose Zune). As I mentioned above, the new Zune software is optimized for Windows 7. That means it takes advantage of key Windows 7 features! Using Jump Lists in Windows 7, you can access albums youve pinned under Quickplay as well as your preconfigured Smart DJ mixes of 5 of your favorite artists or bands. It also lets you shuffle all music and resume playing music if on pause. With Taskbar Previews (just hover your mouse over the Zune button on the Windows Taskbar in Windows 7), you can move to the next song, go back to the previous song, and pause your music and rate songs! And with Aero Snap, you can resize the Zune software to the top or bottom, left or right of your screen. Zune now also features for the first time download-to-own, or rent full movies in combination of their growing TV show library. These movies and TV shows can be downloaded in standard definition (SD) or high definition (HD). A remember, Zune Pass is only $14.99 and now comes with unlimited access to streaming music online! Oh and you also get 10 MP3 song credits a month to redeem too. Give the new Zune software a try for free by clicking here. Disclaimer: My music tastes do not represent that of Microsoft ;-)

No need to wait begin your Windows 7 deployment now!

As you already know, on August 7th we made Windows 7 RTM available to our Volume License (VL) customers who have Software Assurance (SA). Windows Server customers are able to download 2008 R2 as of August 14th and on September 1st, we announced VL customers without SA are able to purchase Windows 7 through Volume Licensing. With this broad availability to our business customers, I want to share TCO (total cost of ownership) data from early adopters, some feedback from enterprise customers, and advanced companion tools and applications to enable the best experience as businesses deploy Windows 7. We have a lot going on, so read on for all the details. To support early migration to Windows 7, today we announced on the MDOP Team Blog that we will be releasing Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) 2009 R2 in late October 2009, which Ill also talk more about in a bit. Deployments are happening right now and your company can begin deployment as well! Several of our early adopters are already having great success with Windows 7. I thought I would share some of the TCO findings from studies of three enterprise customer deployments. Customers involved in the studies were: Baker Tilly (Professional Services - UK): 2,200 users City of Miami (Local Government - US): 2,235 users Getronics (IT Services - Netherlands): 14,300 users Some of the key TCO findings from the studies include: Direct cost savings of IT labor dedicated to PC management are expected to be in the range of $89-160 per PC annually. That means IT Pros are saving up to two hours per desktop annually. For companies with several thousand PCs, this frees up a lot of valuable time, allowing IT departments to focus on more mission critical efforts and support their business more efficiently. Overall, the $70-$160 in savings per PC annually represents reduction of IT labor costs ranging from a 10-20%. For example, Baker Tilly has been able to re-focus their IT force on strategic projects and estimates theyll save 18% on PC management costs. Companies are realizing power savings with Windows 7 that add to the direct savings in IT Labor. For example, the City of Miami estimates their expected power savings alone ($54 per PC per year) justifies their Windows 7 deployment. City of Miami also expects to save big on service desk costs. Previously, the city IT staff had to physically travel to the PC users location to resolve support issues. Windows 7 has advanced capabilities such as Remote Desktop, which now help the IT staff to diagnose and resolve issues remotely, saving both travel time and end-user downtime. Built-in features like the Problem Steps Recorder (PSR) have been described as a nugget of gold in the operating system. Specifically, PSR helps users communicate problems to the service desk, reducing the need to dispatch technicians to user locations by as much as 90%. These TCO studies represent a few of our Windows 7 customers. You can find out more by reading the full TCO studies. Here is what other early deploying customers are saying about savings and overall value: Gokboru Kilic, Client Systems Professional, Turkcell: We expect support costs to drop by 20 percent with Windows 7. Andreas Viehauser, Head of Client and Software Management, Raiffeisen Informatik: We are able to deploy to different computer devices using the same image filehelping reduce deployment time by 60 percent. What used to take three and a half hours now takes as little as one hour. Miguel Lopez, Project Manager, F. Hoffman LaRoche: With Group Policies and Windows 7, well have more granular control over our computers and can more easily enforce how we govern our IT environment. Henk Siereveld, Global IT Director, Bugaboo: Our users love Windows 7. It provides an easier way of working, the interface is attractive, and it offers more functionality than our prior operating systems. John McConeghey, IT Manager, Pella: We opted to roll out Windows Server 2008 in tandem with Windows 7 because there are synergies that we gain by deploying the two products together. Mark McBeth, Vice President of IT, Starwood Hotels & Resorts: From an IT perspective, weve received positive feedback on the performance and stability. For us, those are the very first things we look for in an OS for Sheraton. John McConeghey, IT Manager, Pella We opted to roll out Windows Server 2008 R2 in tandem with Windows 7 because there are synergies that we gain by deploying the two products together. Similarly, customers who have deployed App-V from MDOP are also seeing significant savings. Our recent App-V Cost Reduction Study shows Microsoft App-V is THE desktop virtualization product that delivers immediate savings on the desktop. App-V is estimated to provide an annual savings of $156 in hard costs and $125 in user productivity, yielding a total savings of up to $280 per PC annually. We are happy to see so much excitement from early Windows 7 adopters, showing the real value Windows 7 provides enterprises. We recently asked Forrester to take a closer look at a broad set of enterprise customers to understand the real challenges of enterprises today and what is most important to them. Forrester surveyed over 318 senior IT decision makers and C- level IT executives in the US, Germany and Japan, with 78% of the respondent companies having over 500 PCs. Key findings from their survey include: For 87% of companies, controlling costs is a critically or very important business priority. For 84% of companies, improving employee productivity is a critically or very important business priority. For 54% of companies, improving employee mobility is a critically or very important business priority. For 86% of companies, security is a critically or very important technology initiative. As such - mobility, employee productivity and security requirements are surfacing as central challenges to the customers experience: These companies support on average 174 Branch offices each; with only 38% of employees on average working in HQ; with 20% of the branch office workers dissatisfied with their access to corporate data. 68% of the companies struggle with the inability to manage PCs when those are not physically connected to the corporate network. 10% of the helpdesk calls are VPN-related. 23% of the helpdesk calls being related to users needing to install applications to do work and 14% of helpdesk calls are caused by users corrupting their systems by installing unauthorized software overall an industry concern over malware management. The study confirmed the real challenges of enterprises today which increase companies costs each year. With Windows 7 and MDOP, we developed Windows Optimized Desktop to target challenges to help address the customers most critical needs. Its important to note that customers who deploy Windows 7 and MDOP with their existing server infrastructure will be able to expect significant value, user productivity, stronger data protection, and security and PC management. They can also expect automation improvements that can help them save costs and improve efficiency. The great news for customers here is that they do not have big dependencies on other deployment initiatives before they can realize the benefits of their Windows 7 deployment. However, if customers choose to deploy Windows Server 2008 R2 with Windows 7, they can expect even greater cost savings, reduced complexity and increased user productivity. We also continue to innovate on MDOP to ensure it serves as a valuable enabler to the deployment and management of Windows 7. As I already mentioned, well be releasing MDOP 2009 R2 in late October. MDOP 2009 R2 will add Windows 7 support for all of the tools except MED-V, which will support Windows 7 in the first quarter of calendar year 2010 via MED-V 1.0 SP1. I recommend reading the MDOP Team Blog for more information on MDOP 2009 R2. Furthering our efforts help companies deploy Windows 7, we recently announced the availability of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010. MDT 2010 is optimized to support Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 deployments, and has built-in capabilities to support customers migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7. With the release of both MDOP 2009 R2 and MDT 2010, and other resources available on the TechNet and Springboard websites, customers can feel confident about the deployment support available for Window 7. Now is the time to begin testing and deploying Windows 7 with MDOP and Windows Server 2008 R2!

Announcing New Tools for IT Professionals & Developers Transitioning to Windows 7

Today I am pleased to announce some new technologies to help developers and IT professionals make the transition to Windows 7. For developers, we are announcing the public beta for the Platform Update for Windows Vista. The Platform Update for Windows Vista is a set of runtime libraries that makes it easy for developers to target both Windows 7 and Windows Vista. The Platform Update for Windows Vista includes: Windows Ribbon and Animation Manager Library: contains the Windows Ribbon API, a command framework that enables developers to quickly and easily create rich ribbon experiences in their applications, and the Windows Animation Manager API, an animation framework for managing the scheduling and execution of user interface element animations. Windows Graphics, Imaging, and XPS Library: components for developers to leverage the latest advancements in modern graphics technologies for gaming, multimedia, imaging and printing applications. It includes updates to DirectX to support hardware acceleration for 2D, 3D and text based scenarios; DirectCompute for hardware accelerated parallel computing scenarios; and XPS Library for document printing scenarios. Windows Automation API: allows accessibility tools and test automations to access Windows user interface in a consistent way across operating system versions. Windows Portable Devices Platform: supplies the infrastructure to standardize data transfers between an application and a portable device, such as a mobile phone, digital camera, or portable media player. Please note that the Windows Automation API will also be made available as a separate download for PCs running Windows XP. The Platform Update for Windows Vista will be available to all Windows Vista customers through Windows Update, so developers leveraging these libraries in their applications can feel confident knowing it is broadly deployed. Third-party applications that require the Platform Update for Windows Vista can have Windows Update detect whether or not it is installed; if not, Windows Update will download and install it silently in the background. The ability for PCs to download this update can be managed by IT professionals Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) and other third-party desktop management tools. To participate in the public beta for the Platform Update for Windows Vista, click here. For IT Professionals, we are also announcing the upcoming release of the Remote Desktop Connection 7.0 (RDC7) client for Windows XP and Windows Vista. RDC7 will allow users who connect to machines running Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 from Windows XP or Windows Vista to take advantage of features such as Windows Media Player redirection and true multi-monitor support. For more information on RDC7, see this blog post on the Remote Desktop Services Team Blog. The release candidate for the Windows Management Framework is also available. This is a collection of tools to help IT Professionals manage a mixed environment of Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP PCs and includes: Windows PowerShell 2.0 Windows Remote Management 2.0 Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS 4.0) For specific details or to download the release candidate, click here. We believe these tools and collection of libraries will be extremely useful to IT Professionals and Developers transitioning their organizations and applications to Windows 7. We expect to have the final versions of the RDC7 client, the Windows Management Framework, and the Platform Update available sometime in Q4 2009.

What is Windows Home Server?

Since Windows Home Server is a new addition to The Windows Blog, we thought it would be a good idea to give everyone a refresh on what exactly Windows Home Server is and what it can do for you. Windows Home Server was designed for households and home-based offices that have more than one personal computer. It was created to help you simplify your digital life, and provide an easy way to access your media and files from any computer, inside or outside your home. The leading benefits of Windows Home Server will help you Share, Protect, Organize, and Grow all of your digital content on up to 10 PCs through three basic services. These include automatic PC back-up, restoration ; document and file sharing ; and remote access capabilities. Windows Home Server software will typically be sold with new server hardware from companies like Acer and HP. The great news about this product is that you dont have to be computer savvy to set it up or to use it. To get your home server up and running, it only takes three easy steps: plug in the power, connect an Ethernet cord, and install the Windows Home Server connector software. Starting to sound pretty cool? Lets take a closer look at each of these features. Organize: Lets pretend that you just got back from an amazing vacation and uploaded all of your new photos to one of your home PCs. Now, your family is over and wanting to see them, but you forgot which computer and folder you put them on. Instead of spending the time it takes to search through multiple locations, you could be using Windows Home Server and enjoying your picture slideshow. Windows Home Server provides an effortless way to organize and manage all of your media including the vacation pictures. After installation, a pre-defined set of shared folders will be shown: Photos, Music, and Videos. Windows Home Server will organize your familys files and media, by storing them in one of the shared locations. Since all of these files will be stored in a central place, they can easily be found and accessed from any computer on your home or office network. Therefore, it doesnt really matter which computer you put your pictures on since you can see them on any computer that is connected to your Home Server. Furthermore, if you enable user access, everyone on your network will have the ability to add and view media that is located in the Shared Folders. *Organize devices Protect: I think we have all experienced the feeling of losing important files or pictures we love, and it is absolutely devastating. Everyone is aware that you should regularly back-up your computer in order to prevent loss of these valuable things. However, how often do you really find yourself doing it? With Windows Home Server, you will no longer need to run around your house with USB hard drives doing manual backups. Instead, Windows Home Server enables you to rest easy knowing that all of your irreplaceable videos and pictures are safe with Windows Home Servers daily, automatic image based back-up and restoration feature. The ability to restore individual files or even your entire computer is what makes backing up significant. Restoration can include accidentally deleted files (documents, music, pictures, videos), or complete computers. If your vacation pictures or crucial financial information accidentally get deleted, they will not be lost forever since you can restore to a previous point in time. You can also increase protection of certain files with Windows Home Server with since you have the ability to duplicate your shared folders. When you have more than one hard drive in your Home Server, your memories and files can then be stored and copied across multiple hard drives. Share: Windows Home Server helps families and small offices centralize and connect their digital experiences. It provides an easy and reliable way to store, access, and share whatever is most important through remote access. Like other features of Windows Home Server, remote access is fast and simple to use! When using remote access, Windows Home Server lets you stay connected with friends and family. Once installed, your Home Server will automatically assign you an uncomplicated web address such as yourname.homeserver.net. You will then be able to share pictures, music, and documents through the password protected web address. From this site, you can upload media to the Shared Folders on your Home Server when using PCs that are not on your home network. This will give your friends and family the ability to log in through the personalized web address and download any pictures or files that you may have there. It is also simple to locate, view files, and even run applications from your home PC just as if you were sitting in front of that computer. Grow: With Windows Home Server, storage space grows as your digital life grows. The ability to increase the number of drives in your Home Server is one of the biggest innovations for Windows Home Server. You can very easily add internal or external hard drives of any size so that you will have an unlimited amount of storage for your collection of files, photos, and videos. Once you have two or more drives plugged in, the server will see this additional storage as one large drive instead of many individual drives. This will result in a much easier process when locating and storing files since you will only be searching through one virtual drive. *Acer Aspire easyStore H-340 Your Home Server is also fully expandable meaning you have the option to download extra features to help customize your Home Server. The development community has created add-ins for Windows Home Server that extends its capabilities in fun, exciting, and useful ways. There are currently over 100 add-ins available for download including Whiist for photo sharing, and Lights Out for power conservation. For more detailed information about Windows Home Server, check out the product guide at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/support.mspx. To purchase and learn more about Windows Home Server, please visit www.microsoft.com/windowshomeserver. - Nicole

Introducing The Windows Outreach Team and #WinWin7 on Twitter

If you happened to be searching for pizza on Twitter Search yesterday or are following the @mswindows Twitter account, chances are you witnessed the kickoff of #WinWin7. The Windows Outreach Team kicked off 7 weeks of Windows 7 by sending 7 piping-hot pizzas to 7 lucky Twitter followers. And it wont stop there. Throughout the next 7 weeks, @mswindows will be giving away prizes all based on the number 7 (for Windows 7). Winners must take part in the challenges and are encouraged to invite friends to join in on the fun which all culminates on launch day - October 22nd. Make sure youre following @mswindows and tell them Brandon sent you. Oh and watch for the official #WinWin7 hash tag too. Speaking of the Windows Outreach Team, how about meeting the supporting cast? You may have seen them on some of your favorite blogs and forums and didnt really know who they were. Lets change that. Jeff D, Cody G and Ron S, are a savvy team tasked with reaching out to users and creating a real resource within the communities on the Web. Along with Josh T on the @mswindows account, these team members bring a wealth of knowledge (both consumer and even a bit on the techy side) to the table. Anywhere from gaming to watching your media across your home network, these guys have been there and tried out the fixes and know what works and what doesnt. You can bet on them to offer advice and an open ear, not a sales pitch and a bottom line oddly enough, none of them wanted to be a snake oil salesman growing up. So, keep a lookout for the team on some of your favorite blogs and forums and feel free to say hi or just ask a question. Theyll be sure to help get you on the track to whatever it is you need. If you have any questions for the Windows Outreach Team, just send a tweet to @mswindows. Or leave a comment here too of course. NOTE: The Windows Outreach Team also runs the Windows Live Twitter account @windowslive too.

Launch Parties to Help Tell the Windows 7 Story

Last night, many employees here at Microsoft (including me) received an email from Tami Reller, Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Vice President for the Windows Business Group. Her email invited Microsoft employees to host a Launch Party for Windows 7 and were extending this invitation out to you! These Launch Parties will be a way for everyone to get involved in the excitement of the launch of Windows 7 on October 22nd. You helped make Windows 7, now you can help launch it! These gatherings can are a way for people who are excited about Windows 7 to bring together their friends, families and acquaintances to see the experience the product. They can happen anywhere - at home, in a cafe, at schools, or at other community gathering spots and can be as flexible and creative as you and your circle of people. Im thinking about hosting a Launch Party myself and thinking about where and who to invite to my party when I host it. If you live in one of the countries where Launch Parties will be available for you to host, you can apply here to be a Launch Party host. In order to host a Launch Party, your application must go through a review process first. If your application passes the review process, you will be sent an email letting you know you have been accepted. A MyParty page is created for you by House Party where you (as the host) can add who you want to invite to your party and invite them. You will also receive a kit to help you with your party, including Windows 7 Host Help Videos and Host Notes (demos) and other materials to make your Launch Party fun. Todd Bishop wrote a good blog post talking about Launch Parties which is worth reading if youre interested in hosting one! Note: If you dont live in a country where Launch Parties are available to host dont worry! You can still hold a Windows 7 gathering of your own. We will be providing Windows 7 tips, content, demos, and training online starting September 15th for you to host your own gathering or meet-up.

Windows 7 Volume License and Trial Availability

Last month we made Windows 7 available to customers with Software Assurance and to MSDN and TechNet Subscribers. Today I am happy to announce two more ways for businesses to get Windows 7 for their deployment and evaluation. Volume License Availability, at a Discount Starting today, businesses can order upgrades to Windows 7 from a Microsoft Volume License Reseller. This option is for businesses that dont already have Windows Software Assurance and want to upgrade their existing business PCs to Windows 7. There are two editions of Windows 7 available through Volume Licensing: Windows 7 Professional: Designed for small and midsize organizations, Windows 7 Professional provides a PC experience you can count on, helps you get more done, and helps safeguard your work. Today, we are also starting a 15% discount on Windows 7 Professional upgrade licenses that will run until February 28, 2010. Contact your Microsoft reseller to take advantage of this offer and confirm availability in your area (discount is offered on Microsoft pricing to its channel partners; pricing offered by partners may vary). Windows 7 Enterprise: If you have an active Software Assurance agreement or purchase one with your Windows 7 Professional upgrade licenses or new PCs with Windows 7 Professional, you can deploy Windows 7 Enterprise. Designed for enterprises and businesses that want to optimize their desktop IT infrastructure, Windows 7 Enterprise will help make users productive anywhere, enhance security and control, and streamline PC management. Windows 7 will run on most PCs businesses have today. More information on tools to help with your upgrade to Windows 7 is available at www.windows.com/business/upgrade. Additionally, we recommend that customers with Software Assurance purchase the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) to aid in their enterprise OS management. The MDOP subscription currently includes six technologies that help reduce the TCO of a Windows 7 desktop. MDOP simplifies application deployment and lifecycle management and provides a solution for resolving application incompatibility through virtualization. MDOP also increases IT responsiveness and user uptime through robust diagnostics and monitoring capabilities, and increases IT control by providing asset tracking and group policy change management. Keep in mind that Windows Volume Licensing upgrades are only available for PCs that already have a qualifying Operating System, such as Windows Vista Business or Windows XP Professional. For a list of qualified versions of Windows 7 operating system licenses, download the Windows 7 and Optimized Desktop Volume Licensing Guide available on http://www.microsoft.com/windows/enterprise/how-to-buy.aspx. Windows 7 Enterprise 90-Day Trial If you are an IT Pro who does not have a Software Assurance Volume Licensing agreement and are not an MSDN/TechNet subscriber, you can download the Windows 7 Enterprise 90-Day Trial. This is something many of you have asked for as a means to continue evaluating Windows 7 in your environment prior to deployment, and I am pleased to announce that you can download it starting today from the from the Springboard Series site on TechNet. Read all the details about this trial edition in Stephen Roses post. Businesses now have access to multiple resources they can use to plan their deployment or begin upgrading their PCs to Windows 7. Beginning October 22, 2009 all customers will be able to purchase new PCs with Windows 7.

The Device Experience in Windows 7

I am posting this on behalf of Jack Tao who is a Program Manager on the Windows 7 Devices & Media Team. Jack is one of the newer members of his team and wants to introduce Windows 7's new device experience and the Device Stage feature. He joined the Devices and Media Team first as an Intern Program Manager in 2007. While working on device connectivity features at the time, he saw a mockup of the Windows 7 device experience that was nothing more than a PowerPoint slideshow. It promised to make using devices with Windows easier than ever while providing device makers unique opportunities for differentiation. A year later, he graduated from college and came back to the same team in Microsoft full-time. He worked on integrating picture and video import with Device Stage and learned firsthand how "slide-ware" becomes software. In this blog post, he and Robin Goldstein, Max Morris, and Marc Pottier will tell you about how Device Stage works. They will explain their motivations and design process, and also show how our partners participated. More and more, people are relying on devices besides PCs and laptops for their information, communication, and entertainment experience. Most of these devices can connect to a PC locally or wirelessly, can join networks, and increasingly have their own rich applications, services, and data capabilities. Our goal with Windows 7 was to help customers use and manage these devices in a more enjoyable way and to help device makers provide access to their device experiences and services in a flexible but consistent manner. What is the Windows Device Experience? Previous versions of Windows presented a component and function-centric view of devices. Consider the experience for a customer with a multifunction printer in Windows Vista and XP. At the high level, a Printers folder shows fax and print functions represented as separate devices, with generic icons, while the scanner function is not represented at all. At the system level, the experience challenge is further illustrated by the tree node representation of the Windows Device Manager. For device makers, our partners, the device experience Windows has provided has also been limiting. There was no easy way to integrate services, unique features, and branding directly into Windows. As a result, there was a lack of distinction in the device experience Windows provided for different devices, even if the devices had quite different features. In addition, device makers are increasingly writing unique applications to provide access to services, offers, and support for their products. To achieve differentiation and to fully leverage the features of their devices, many device makers substitute their own device experience for the one Windows provides. From the user perspective, all of this leads to an incoherent experience when trying to accomplish common tasks with devices. Creating a Better Experience In Windows 7, we started by clearly defining the device experience that we believed our users and our partners need and want: User experience features that define how people discover and use devices that are connected to their PC. System and platform features that define how device makers present their devices and related services in Windows. We wanted to enhance the installation and configuration process by improving enumeration and display of device capabilities, presentation of devices, and access to configuration settings. We also wanted to create a discoverable and enjoyable way of accessing applications and services specific to a device. From a design perspective, we determined the user experience should support finding and recognizing devices, discovering device capabilities and common tasks, and accessing support services and accessories. Also, the user experience should be natural and have a consistent work flow with little to no learning curve. The value for device makers would come from simplified installation and deployment, clear brand association, prominent placement in the experience, and extensibility and customizability of the experience. The Windows 7 Device Experience In Windows 7 we introduced several new features to address the challenges and meet the goals outlined above. These new features are supported by system and platform enhancements that define how device makers present their devices, related applications, and services within the Windows user interface. Two of the key features we developed involved new user experiences for devices. Devices and Printers: Available from the Windows 7 Start menu, a new experience known as Devices and Printers lets users see all the devices connected to their PC. The devices represented are the ones users can actually touch and feel not abstract components or functions. A multifunction printer now shows up as a single device in Devices and Printers, not as a collection of three or four components. Devices can be connected via USB, or paired via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth wireless interfaces. Device makers do not have to do anything for their devices to show up in Devices and Printers. But if they want to, they can customize the experience the user will have by using a new set of XML schemas supported in Windows 7. They can also develop custom context menu handlers to be shown when the user right-clicks on the device. Devices and Printers with custom device data Device Stage: Device Stage provides a new way for users to interact with devices. It includes a visual interface that makes it easy for customers to find and use applications and services for their devices. Device makers that develop device experiences for Device Stage use a new set of XML schemas to specify rich branding and customization of the interface, including defining custom tasks to install software and links to services. Device makers can update their custom Device Stage experiences by submitting updated XML to Microsoft for distribution to Windows 7 PCs across the Internet. Device Stage can be accessed by double-clicking a supported device from within Devices and Printers. The Device Stage user interface follows the model of any Shell view in Windows, and Device Stage devices appear on the Windows taskbar whenever Device Stage is open. In this way, users can interact with devices in the same manner as they would an application, with access to the enhanced taskbar functionality, including jump lists. For portable devices, Device Stage also provides a multifunction version of AutoPlay, so the device icon will appear on the taskbar whenever the device is connected to the PC. If the device maker does not develop a Device Stage experience for a portable device, the Windows 7 AutoPlay experience is maintained. Device Stage Design Principles As we set out to design Device Stage, we established some guiding principles early in the project to help us focus the design and development process. These principles were gleaned from our partners, from extensive customer feedback, from focus groups around the world, and from our own vision for how devices should work with Windows. Here's a look at how some of the high-level ideals that guided our design. Use your device in seconds: Plug in your device to your PC and use it right away. As we explored device scenarios, we came to realize that just connecting a device to a PC can sometimes be intimidating. You often need to find & download custom drivers and install software supplied by the device maker to use your device, sometimes even in just the right order. With Device Stage our goal was to reduce, and in some cases eliminate, the need to install additional software on the PC. We wanted people to literally just plug in their devices and start using them. What we did: The first thing we did was work to improve the reliability of the experience. To qualify for a fully branded Device Stage experience, devices must be certified to meet our minimum requirements. This usually means devices need to earn the Compatible with Windows Logo certification and that their drivers ship in box with Windows or are available from Windows Update. This quality check makes sure that the device is compatible with Windows and that it will have a good experience when connecting to Windows. In the document device case, an in box driver distribution program for printers, scanners, and multifunction printers provides a similar quality check, so it's also a basis for certification. The next step was to provide a device experience on connect. To do this, we added a "baseline" feature to Device Stage. When connected for the first time, a device that has opted to use the baseline feature has immediate support in Device Stage. The baseline device experience provides quick access to the core features of the device. Finally, we needed to support an upgrade mechanism from the baseline to the custom device experience. As users work with the baseline experience, Windows 7 also checks online to see if the device maker has provided a custom device experience for the device. If available, Windows 7 downloads and installs it, and then offers the user the opportunity to upgrade. The result is an effortless first-connect experience-you plug in your device, and moments later you are interacting with a fully branded experience designed explicitly for you device. Example of an upgrade from a baseline experience to a fully branded Device Stage experience Everything you need for your device in one place: Windows 7 makes the device the center of your experience. In earlier versions of Windows, users needed to know ahead of time which applications to use with their devices. AutoPlay sometimes helped users discover applications for portable devices, but the model didn't scale well to services or web-hosted content. As devices have become increasingly sophisticated and varied in their functions, this problem has become more acute-leading people to hunt and peck through the Start menu or control panel for applications or configuration options, or to navigate complex websites to find product information. We wanted to make it easier for people to find compatible programs and access content and services for their devices-from their device itself. What we did: In Windows 7, we flipped the device experience model on its head. Instead of making applications the focus of the device experience, we chose to make the device the center of attention. To improve discoverability, we created Devices and Printers within which every device connected to a PC appears. We also enabled device makers to provide photorealistic icons of their device to help customers recognize their device in Windows. If the device maker has opted-in to Device Stage, double-clicking on the device icon navigates to the device's Device Stage window. Devices and Printers is easily discoverable and available from the Start menu Improving device discoverability was just the first step. We still needed to provide an easy way to access the applications, content, and services for a device. This requirement led us to the model for making device tasks available from within the shell, along with partner customized services and links in a single Window. Different devices have different usage patterns: A single interaction model doesn't work for all devices. Device interaction models vary greatly based on the type of device and the capabilities it supports. For example, printers are always connected, and most people usually access printer functions through the Print dialog from an application. Portable devices (mobile phones, portable media players, and digital still cameras) are different. Many portable devices are multifunction and can be used to perform a wide range of tasks. They are also only occasionally connected to the PC, but they are typically heavily used when they are connected. As we worked across device-classes, we realized that the device experience needed to fit within the user's usage patterns. What we did: One example of a device-specific behavior is the behavior of Windows when a portable device connects to and disconnects from a PC. When you connect a portable device to the PC, you'll notice that its icon automatically appears in the taskbar. Since the device is likely the focus of the user's attention, this provides quick access to the device while it's connected. Hovering over the device taskbar icon will show you its status, and right-clicking will display a jump list of its frequently-used tasks. Placing the device icon on the taskbar helps discoverability and access to tasks while the device is connected - but what happens when it disconnects? Because portable devices come and go, we also wanted to make sure it was easy to remove a device from Windows. Disconnecting a portable device removes it from the taskbar and automatically closes all Device Stage windows, ensuring that the desktop remains clean and uncluttered. Disconnecting a portable device automatically closes all Device Stage windows to reduce desktop clutter It's our partner's device experience: Windows device experiences are the embodiment of our partner's brand & unique device capabilities. We partnered closely with many device makers and were careful to listen to their requirements, analyzing these for common needs and scenarios. We found that many partners didn't especially enjoy developing desktop software, but found it a necessary investment in order to deliver features for their devices. Some people buy devices based solely on the technical specs and hardware capabilities of the device, but for many consumers, buying a new device is also an emotional decision. Millions of dollars are spent on marketing the latest devices in an attempt to form a connection with people and build desire for the product. This customer relationship is critical to our partners, and we decided early on that Windows should reinforce this connection. What we did: We provided a platform to enable the look and feel as well as the contents of the experience to be almost entirely up to the device maker. Device makers can develop custom tasks so that device experiences are specifically tailored to particular devices. Custom tasks could include links to product manuals, shopping sites for compatible accessories, and sites for getting technical support, or even online services that interact directly with the connected device. Anatomy of a Device Stage Experience The Device Stage experience is presented through the Device Stage window and the device icon on the taskbar. Working together with Devices and Printers, these interfaces provide a coherent device experience, enabling users to quickly find and access the features for their device. Why are the devices on the Taskbar? Devices appear on the taskbar whenever a Device Stage window is open. With portable devices, the taskbar icons appear when the device is connected, regardless of whether the Device Stage window is currently open or not. This makes it easy to access and recognize when a device is connected. Interacting with the device from the taskbar is as easy as managing windows and documents in an application. Getting storage status from the Taskbar Preview. Launching tasks from the device Jump List. Mouseover for Aero Peek when the Device Stage window is also open. Whats in the Device Stage Windows? The Device Stage window contains a branding header along the top of the window, with a space for tasks and task categories in the area below. The Branding Bar: The branding bar is made up of a handful of graphics: a background image, an overlay image, a device hero image, and primary and secondary logo images. These images are specified by the device maker and presented by Device Stage when the device experience is displayed. Device makers can experiment with a different look and feel by creating custom graphics and referencing them in the Device Stage XML. The XML sample below shows how graphical elements are expressed in the branding bar. Behavior.xml <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <deviceBehavior experienceId="{11874871-83cc-4f8a-af63-0535325ec131}" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2008/deviceExperienceBehavior"> <header watermarkAlign="left" textColor="#FF000000" backgroundImage="Light_Sky_Left.png" watermarkImage="Light_Bubbles_left.png" sheen="false"> <modelInfo image="sample_device.png" launcherThumbnail="sample_launcher.png" /> <logos split="horizontal" scalingBehavior="maximizeLogoSize"> <logo image="sample_logo1.png" valign="center" halign="right" /> <logo image="sample_logo2.png" valign="center" halign="right" /> </logos> </header> <appearance textColor="#FF000000" descriptionColor="#FF808080" frameColor="#FF666666" backgroundColor="#FFffffff" /> ... Tasks and Categories: The tasks and categories area enables users to launch applications and browse to websites from Device Stage. To help ensure core device functions are always available to users, Windows 7 includes a number of built-in tasks such as picture and video import, contacts and calendar sync, a ringtone editor, printer queues, hardware control panels, and more. For example, a picture and video import program is included in Windows 7 and it's available in Device Stage through a built-in task. Without requiring additional software to be installed, a user can connect their camera or mobile phone and use the task to import photos and videos right from Device Stage. Also, the user can set this task as the default action for Device Stage to take whenever the device is connected. If a user prefers to use a different, compatible program-such as Windows Live Photo Gallery, or other software from a third-party-the user can easily change the task to use the preferred program instead at any time. The Device Stage Metadata Package: To deliver the experience to the user, the graphics and XML defined by the device maker must be assembled together into a file known as a device metadata package. The package is associated with a given device or device family and is what Windows 7 uses to create the experience whenever a device connects. Packaging files together makes it easy to distribute the device experience as described in the next section. Device Stage End-to-End System To make Device Stage work as easily as we wanted it to, we needed to invest in more than just the Windows 7 experience. We developed and deployed a set of Internet services with to support the development and validation of custom Device Stage experiences by device makers, as well as to support the distribution of these custom device experiences to Windows 7 PCs. The following diagram illustrates the end-to-end steps in this system. The system is managed by Microsoft to support the global scale of use expected by Windows 7 device maker partners and users. Here's how the system works to deliver on our design principles. Family Programming Model The programming model for customizing a Device Stage experience leverages familiar design, development, testing, and verification processes. XML is the language used for expressing customization, letting the device maker benefit from existing investments in the development tools of its choice. Customization can be done in a language-neutral way, with text resources encoded directly within separate XML files. This makes it more efficient and less error-prone to localize a device experience. The overall development process is simply a matter of design, editing, and refining XML template documents provided by Microsoft for each device class. The XML templates encode the basic experience for a particular device class. Syntactic accuracy for any changes made can be verified by comparing a custom experience's XML files against XML schema description (XSD) files. Windows 7 can also be configured to support rapid testing to verify the device experience works as expected in Device Stage. Low-cost Validation and Management The validation and management process leverages and extends existing business processes supported by Windows Quality Online Services (Winqual) around the Windows Logo Program for Devices. It is through this process that the device maker and Microsoft agree to customize the device experience for a particular device. Device makers first design, develop, test, package, and verify their custom device experience offline. The resulting metadata packages can then be submitted for validation via the Web. Winqual's process makes sure the device maker identity and its submissions are validated and secured using VeriSign IDs. The validation process involves checking the XML files for correct syntax, and verifying that graphics files meet the visual layout guidelines, and submissions are checked using anti-virus and other security filters. The validation process is designed to be automatic, lightweight, and efficient with a rapid turnaround to address any errors that may exist. Finally, Microsoft signs device metadata packages it validates to guard against tampering, giving the device maker and users confidence in the integrity of the system. This also provides for flexible distribution by the device maker. The device maker can update, replace, and remove validated device metadata packages through Winqual at any time. If any issues with a device experience arise, Microsoft and the device maker can work together to update the device experience. Support device maker control The end-to-end system was designed to put the device maker in control of the device experience. Only the device maker who certifies a device is able to customize the corresponding device experience. The system supports automated schemes to avoid most conflicts in device identifiers. When conflicts do occur, they are efficiently resolved by Winqual with interested device makers before having any impact on the user. A device maker can produce a device experience for a family of devices, and then create an experience for a specific device from that family. This is useful for lowering upfront investment costs and for providing the same experience to a family of devices that have common functionality and appearance. Depending on the device identifiers used, a device maker can customize an experience directly on behalf of its business partners. Flexible distribution and installation Once signed, device metadata packages can be distributed to Windows 7 PCs through many paths. The distribution and installation process is separated from the validation and management processes in order to provide maximum flexibility to the device maker and a high-quality experience for the user. Microsoft distributes all signed device metadata packages to Windows 7 PCs via the Windows Metadata Information Service (WMIS). After it installs device drivers for the device, Windows 7 queries WMIS for a matching device metadata package. After the initial query and in the background, Windows 7 will periodically check for updates to the device experience. Device makers can install device metadata packages directly during setup, either from the device or from a setup application (depending on the device class). Device makers can also distribute packages via their own websites, or make packages available to enterprise customers for installation to administratively-managed Windows 7 PCs. Match what the user sees The device experience the user sees in Device Stage needs to correspond to the device the user perceives as the integrated, physical device, and the device experience has to be in the language the user is currently using in Windows. So, when Windows 7 looks for a device metadata package, it uses identifying information about the device and the current user's language settings. Device metadata packages are matched based on the physical device the user sees. To help with this matching, new investments in Windows associate the logical functions for a physical device automatically and seamlessly. This is an addition to the previous device model in Windows, which was organized around logical functions and buses VS organized around the physically integrated "piece of plastic" that the user actually perceives. Device Stage Adoption Unlike Devices and Printers, Device Stage requires the device maker to invest in developing a custom experience, and the device has to be certified to work well with Windows. Also, because the platform is new, Microsoft only supports a limited number of device classes in Device Stage at this time. Together, these limitations help make sure the Device Stage experience will work correctly on Windows for a device. However, this also means adoption of Device Stage by the industry can take time. Windows 7 initially only supported portable and document devices, including mobile phones, portable media players, digital still cameras, printers, scanners, and multifunction printers. Based on industry feedback, Device Stage now supports the PC itself as well as HID-based devices such as keyboards and mice. Further device class support will be added after Windows 7 ships, because the end-to-end system supports extensibility without changes to the Windows 7 PC. Participation from PC and device makers in the supported device classes is ramping up, and we should see more custom experiences emerge as new Windows 7 PCs are launched. For the portable and document device classes, to help minimize their upfront investment and improve initial adoption, Windows supports device makers with compatible devices who do not offer a custom Device Stage experience to target Device Stage anyway, using the baseline Device Stage experience. With the baseline experience, there is no partner branding or tasks, but all of the built-in Windows tasks are enabled, as well as integration with the Windows 7 taskbar, jump lists, Devices and Printers, and AutoPlay as applicable. For the Windows 7 launch, we expect partners to take advantage of this option as they work to develop their custom Device Stage experiences. Over 5000 devices already support the baseline Device Stage experience. Device Stage for mobile phone using the baseline Device Stage experience Yes, you can try this at home! If you want to see Device Stage in action for yourself, Devices and Printers is a good place to start. Available from the Start menu, it provides one easy place for you to manage printers and USB, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi devices. From here, change your default printer, open a link to browse files on your portable media player, or launch Device Stage for a compatible digital camera. In addition to trying out Devices and Printers, chances are you'll also have a Device Stage compatible device. Many popular cameras, media players, mobile phones, printers, scanners, and multifunction printers support at least the baseline Device Stage experience. And many device makers are busy adding support for a custom Device Stage experience, in these device categories and others. Don't be surprised if one day Windows 7 automatically offers a custom Device Stage experience for your device. We hope this post has given you some insights into how Device Stage works and how we built it. We're always looking to improve Windows, so we welcome your feedback! - Jack, Robin, Max, & Marc