Windows seven Component with the Microsoft Windows household Screenshot of Windows 7 Greatest Developer Microsoft Corporation Websites
Official Websites Releases Release date
RTM: July 22, 2009
Retail: October 22, 2009 (info) Existing edition
6.1[1] (Make 7601: Service Pack 1)[2] (February 22, 2011; 21 days ago (2011-02-22)) (data) Source model
Closed source / Shared source License
MS-EULA Kernel type
Hybrid Update method
Windows Update Platform support
IA-32, x86-64 Preceded by
Windows Vista[3] Support status Mainstream support until January 13, 2015.[4] Further reading Development of Windows 7
Features new to Windows seven
List of features removed in Windows 7
Windows 7 editions
Windows seven is the latest release of Microsoft Windows, a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, netbooks, tablet PCs, and media center PCs.[5] Windows 7 was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009,[6] and reached general retail availability on October 22, 2009,[7] less than three years after the release of its predecessor, Windows Vista.
Windows 7's server counterpart, Windows Server 2008 R2, was released at the same time.
Unlike its predecessor, Windows Vista, which introduced a large number of new features, Windows 7 was intended to be a more focused, incremental upgrade to the Windows line, with the goal of being compatible with applications and hardware with which Windows Vista was not at the time.[8] Presentations given by Microsoft in 2008 focused on multi-touch support, a redesigned Windows shell with a new taskbar, referred to as the Superbar, a home networking system called HomeGroup,[9] and performance improvements. Some standard applications that have been included with prior releases of Microsoft Windows, including Windows Calendar, Windows Mail, Windows Movie Maker, and Windows Photo ##############, are not included in Windows seven;[10][11] most are instead offered separately at no charge as element with the Windows Live Essentials suite.[12]
one Development one.1 Goals 2 Features two.one New and changed features
2.2 Removed features 3 Antitrust regulatory attention 3.one Europe 4 Reception
5 Editions
6 Marketing
7 Hardware requirements seven.one Physical memory limits
7.two Multi-core processor and multiprocessor limits 8 Services Packs 8.1 Release history
8.two Significant changes in Services Pack 1 9 See also
10 References
11 External links Development
Originally, a version of Windows codenamed Blackcomb was planned as the successor to Windows XP (codename Whistler) and Windows Server 2003. Major features were planned for Blackcomb, including an emphasis on searching and querying data and an advanced storage system named WinFS to enable such scenarios. However, an interim, minor release, codenamed "Longhorn," was announced for 2003, delaying the development of Blackcomb.[13] By the middle of 2003, however, Longhorn had acquired some from the features originally intended for Blackcomb. After three major viruses exploited flaws in Windows operating systems within a short time period in 2003, Microsoft changed its development priorities, putting some of Longhorn's major development work on hold while developing new services packs for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Development of Longhorn (Windows Vista) was also restarted,
Office 2007 Pro Activation Key, and thus delayed, in August 2004. A number of features were cut from Longhorn.[14]
Blackcomb was renamed Vienna in early 2006[15] and again Windows 7 in 2007.[16] In 2008, it was announced that Windows seven would also be the official name of your operating system.[17][18] There has been some confusion over naming the product Windows seven,[19] while versioning it as six.one to indicate its similar create to Vista and increase compatibility with applications that only check major version numbers,[20] similar to Windows 2000 and Windows XP both having 5.x model numbers.[21]
The first external release to select Microsoft partners came in January 2008 with Milestone one, develop 6519.[22] At PDC 2008, Microsoft demonstrated Windows seven with its reworked taskbar. Copies of Windows 7 create 6801 were distributed at the end with the conference; however,
Office 2007 Standard Serial, the demonstrated taskbar was disabled in this form.
On December 27, 2008, the Windows seven Beta was leaked onto the Internet via BitTorrent.[23] According to a performance test by ZDNet,[24] Windows seven Beta beat both Windows XP and Vista in several key areas; including boot and shutdown time and working with files, such as loading documents. Other areas did not beat XP; including PC Pro benchmarks for typical office activities and video editing, which remain identical to Vista and slower than XP.[25] On January 7,
Office Pro, 2009, the 64-bit version with the Windows seven Beta (put together 7000) was leaked onto the web, with some torrents being infected with a trojan.[26][27] At CES 2009, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced the Windows seven Beta, construct 7000, had been made available for download to MSDN and TechNet subscribers in the format of an ISO image.[28] The Beta was to be publicly released January 9, 2009, and Microsoft initially planned for the download to be made available to 2.5 million people on this date. However, access to the downloads was delayed because of high traffic.[29] The download limit was also extended, initially until January 24, then again to February 10. People who did not complete downloading the beta had two extra days to complete the download. After February 12, unfinished downloads became unable to complete. Users could still obtain product keys from Microsoft to activate their copies of Windows seven Beta, which expired on August 1, 2009.
The release candidate, develop 7100, became available for MSDN and TechNet subscribers and Connect Program participants on April 30, 2009. On May 5, 2009 it became available to the general public, although it had also been leaked onto the Internet via BitTorrent.[30] The release candidate was available in five languages and expired on June one, 2010, with shutdowns every two hours starting March 1, 2010.[31] Microsoft stated that Windows seven would be released to the general public on October 22, 2009. Microsoft released Windows 7 to MSDN and Technet subscribers on August six, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. PDT.[32] Microsoft announced that Windows seven, along with Windows Server 2008 R2, was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009. Windows 7 RTM is establish 7600.16385.090713-1255, which was compiled on July 13, 2009, and was declared the final RTM create after passing all Microsoft's tests internally.[6]
Goals
Bill Gates, in an interview with Newsweek, suggested that this version of Windows would be more "user-centric".[33] Gates later said that Windows seven would also focus on performance improvements.[34] Steven Sinofsky later expanded on this point, explaining in the Engineering Windows seven blog that the company was using a variety of new tracing tools to measure the performance of many areas of the operating system on an ongoing basis, to help locate inefficient code paths and to help prevent performance regressions.[35]
Senior Vice President Bill Veghte stated that Windows Vista users migrating to Windows seven would not find the kind of device compatibility issues they encountered migrating from Windows XP.[36] Speaking about Windows 7 on October 16, 2008, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer confirmed compatibility between Vista and Windows 7, indicating that Windows 7 would be a refined edition of Windows Vista.[37]
Features
New and changed features
Windows 7 includes a number of new features, such as advances in touch and handwriting recognition, support for virtual hard disks, improved performance on multi-core processors,[38][39][40][41] improved boot performance, DirectAccess, and kernel improvements. Windows 7 adds support for systems using multiple heterogeneous graphics cards from different vendors (Heterogeneous Multi-adapter), a new edition of Windows Media Center,[42] a Gadget for Windows Media Center, improved media features, the XPS Essentials Pack and Windows PowerShell being included, and a redesigned Calculator with multiline capabilities including Programmer and Statistics modes along with unit conversion. Many new items have been added to the Control Panel, including ClearType Text Tuner, Display Color Calibration Wizard, Gadgets, Recovery, Troubleshooting, Workspaces Center, Location and Other Sensors, Credential Manager, Biometric Devices, System Icons, and Display.[43] Windows Security Center has been renamed to Windows Action Center (Windows Health Center and Windows Solution Center in earlier builds), which encompasses both security and maintenance of your computer. Readyboost on 32bit editions now supports up to 256 Gigabytes of extra allocation. The default setting for User Account Control in Windows seven has been criticized for allowing untrusted software to be launched with elevated privileges without a prompt by exploiting a trusted application.[44] Microsoft's Windows kernel engineer Mark Russinovich acknowledged the problem, but noted that malware can also compromise a system when users agree to a prompt.[45] Windows seven also supports images in the RAW image format through the addition of Windows Imaging Component-enabled image decoders, which enables raw image thumbnails, previewing and metadata display in Windows Explorer, plus full-size viewing and slideshows in Windows Photo Viewer and Window Media Center.[46]
The taskbar has seen the biggest visual changes, where the Quick Launch toolbar has been replaced with the "Superbar" allowing applications to be pinned to the taskbar. Buttons for pinned applications are integrated with the task buttons. These buttons also enable the Jump Lists feature to allow easy access to common tasks.[47] The revamped taskbar also allows the reordering of taskbar buttons. To the far right for the system clock is a small rectangular button that serves as the Show desktop icon. This button is part on the new feature in Windows seven called Aero Peek. Hovering over this button makes all visible windows transparent for a quick look at the desktop.[48] In touch-enabled displays such as touch screens, tablet PCs, etc., this button is slightly wider to accommodate being pressed with a finger.[49] Clicking this button minimizes all windows, and clicking it a second time restores them. Additionally, there is a feature named Aero Snap, that automatically maximizes a window when it is dragged to the top of your screen.[50] Dragging windows to the left/right edges from the screen allows users to snap documents or files on either side with the screen for comparison between windows. When a user moves windows that were maximized using Aero Snap, the system restores their previous state automatically. This functionality is also accomplished with keyboard shortcuts. Unlike in Windows Vista, window borders and the taskbar do not turn opaque when a window is maximized with Windows Aero applied. Instead, they remain translucent.
For developers, Windows seven includes a new networking API with support for building SOAP-based web services in native code (as opposed to .NET-based WCF web services),[51] new features to shorten application install times, reduced UAC prompts, simplified development of installation packages,[52] and improved globalization support through a new Extended Linguistic Services API.[53] At WinHEC 2008 Microsoft announced that color depths of 30-bit and 48-bit would be supported in Windows seven along with the wide color gamut scRGB (which for HDMI 1.3 can be converted and output as xvYCC). The video modes supported in Windows seven are 16-bit sRGB, 24-bit sRGB, 30-bit sRGB, 30-bit with extended color gamut sRGB, and 48-bit scRGB.[54][55] Microsoft has also implemented better support for solid-state drives,[56] including the new TRIM command,
Windows 7 Home Premium X64, and Windows seven is able to identify a solid-state drive uniquely. Microsoft is planning to support USB 3.0 in a subsequent patch, support not being included in the initial release due to delays in the finalization of your standard.[57]
Internet Spades, Internet Backgammon and Internet Checkers, which were removed from Windows Vista, were restored in Windows 7. Windows 7 includes Internet Explorer 8 and Windows Media Player 12.
Wikinews has related news: Windows seven will allow users to disable Internet Explorer
Users are also able to disable many more Windows components than was possible in Windows Vista. New additions to this list of components include Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, Windows Media Center, Windows Search, and the Windows Gadget Platform.[58] Windows seven includes 13 additional sound schemes, titled Afternoon, Calligraphy, Characters, Cityscape, Delta, Festival, Garden, Heritage, Landscape, Quirky, Raga, Savanna, and Sonata.[59] A new model of Microsoft Virtual PC, newly renamed as Windows Virtual PC was made available for Windows seven Professional, Enterprise, and Final editions.[60] It allows multiple Windows environments, including Windows XP Mode, to run on the same machine. Windows XP Mode runs Windows XP in a virtual machine and redirects displayed applications running in Windows XP to the Windows 7 desktop.[61] Furthermore, Windows seven supports the mounting of a virtual hard disk (VHD) as a normal data storage, and the bootloader delivered with Windows 7 can boot the Windows system from a VHD, however, this ability is only available in the Enterprise and Greatest editions.[62] The Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) of Windows seven is also enhanced to support real-time multimedia application including video playback and 3D games, thus allowing use of DirectX 10 in remote desktop environments.[63] The three application limit, previously present in the Windows Vista Starter Edition, has been removed from Windows 7.[64]
Removed features
Certain capabilities and Programs that were a component of Windows Vista are no longer present or have been changed, resulting in the removal of certain functionalities. These include the classic Start Menu user interface, some taskbar features, Windows Explorer features, Windows Media Player features, Windows Final Extras and InkBall. Four applications bundled with Windows Vista — Windows Photo ##############, Windows Movie Maker, Windows Calendar[65] and Windows Mail — are not included with Windows seven, but applications with close functionality are instead available for free in a separate package called Windows Live Essentials which can be downloaded on the Microsoft websites. Although Windows Final Extras was removed, many of the extras can be installed separately. Most popular extras were Microsoft Texas Hold 'em, Microsoft Tinker, and Windows DreamScene.[citation needed] InkBall may also be installed into Windows 7.
Antitrust regulatory attention
As with other Microsoft operating systems, Windows 7 is being studied by United States federal regulators who oversee the company's operations following the 2001 United States v. Microsoft settlement. According to status reports filed, the three-member panel began assessing prototypes from the new operating system in February 2008. Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Jupiter Research said that, "[Microsoft's] challenge for Windows seven will be how can they continue to add features that consumers will want that also don't run afoul of regulators."[66]
Europe
In order to comply with European antitrust regulations, Microsoft has proposed the use of a "ballot" screen, allowing users to download a competing browser, thus removing the need for a model of Windows completely without Internet Explorer, as previously planned.[67] In response to criticism involving Windows 7 E and concerns from manufacturers about possible consumer confusion if a edition of Windows 7 with Internet Explorer were shipped later after one without Internet Explorer, Microsoft announced that it would scrap the separate version for Europe and ship the standard upgrade and full packages worldwide.[68]
As with the previous edition of Windows, an N version, which does not come with Windows Media Player, has been released in Europe, but only for sale directly from Microsoft sales websites and selected others.[69]
Reception
In July 2009, in only eight hours, pre-orders of Windows 7 at Amazon.co.uk surpassed the demand Windows Vista had had in its first 17 weeks.[70] It became the highest-grossing pre-order in Amazon's history, surpassing sales with the previous record holder, the seventh Harry Potter book.[71] After 36 hours, 64-bit versions of Windows 7 Professional and Greatest editions sold out in Japan.[72] Two weeks after its release, it was announced that its market share had surpassed that of Snow Leopard, released two months previously as the most recent update to Apple's Mac OS X operating system.[73][74] According to Net Applications, Windows 7 reached a 4% market share in less than three weeks. In comparison, it took Windows Vista seven months to reach the same mark.[75] As of March 4, 2010, Microsoft announced that it had sold more than 90 million Windows seven licenses.[76] On April 23, 2010, Windows 7 has sold more than 100 million copies in six months which made it Microsoft's fastest selling operating system.[77][78] As of June 23, 2010, Windows seven has sold 150 million copies which made it the fastest selling operating system in history with seven copies sold every second.[78][79] Based on worldwide data taken during June 2010 from Windows Update 46% of Windows 7 PCs run the 64-bit edition of Windows 7.[80] According to Stephen Baker with the NPD Group during April 2010 in the United States 77% of PCs sold at retail were pre-installed with the 64-bit edition of Windows seven.[80][81] As of July 22, 2010, Windows 7 had sold 175 million copies.[82] On October 21, 2010, Microsoft announced that more than 240 million copies of Windows seven had been sold.[83] Three months later, on January 27th, 2011, Microsoft announced total sales of 300 million copies of Windows 7.[84]
Reviews of Windows 7 have been mostly positive, noting the increased usability and functionality when compared to its predecessor, Windows Vista. CNET gave Windows seven Home Premium a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars,[85] stating that it "is more than what Vista should have been, [and] it's where Microsoft needed to go". PC Magazine rated it a 4 out of 5 saying that Windows 7 is a "big improvement" over Windows Vista, with fewer compatibility problems, a retooled taskbar, simpler home networking and faster start-up.[86] Maximum PC gave Windows seven a rating of 9 out of 10 and called Windows seven a "massive leap forward" in usability and security, and praised the new Taskbar as "worth the price of admission alone".[87] PC World called Windows seven a "worthy successor" to Windows XP and said that speed benchmarks showed Windows seven to be slightly faster than Windows Vista.[88] PC World also named Windows seven one from the best products in the year.[89] In its review of Windows seven, Engadget said that Microsoft has taken a "strong step forward" with Windows 7 and reported that speed is one of
Windows 7's major selling points particularly for the netbook sets.[90] LAPTOP Magazine gave Windows seven a rating of 4 out of 5 stars and said that Windows 7 makes computing more intuitive, offered better overall performance including a "modest to dramatic" increase in battery life on laptop computers.[91] Techradar gave it a 5 star rating calling it the best model of Windows yet.[92] The New York Times,[93] USA Today,[94] The Wall Street Journal,[95] and The Telegraph[96] also gave Windows seven favorable reviews.
Some Vista Greatest users have expressed concerns over Windows 7 pricing and upgrade options.[97][98] Windows Vista Ultimate users wanting to upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 must either pay $219.99[99] to upgrade to Windows seven Greatest or perform a clean install, which requires them to reinstall all of their programs.[100]
Editions
Windows 7 is available in six different editions, but only the Home Premium, Professional, and Greatest editions are available for retail sale to consumers in most countries.[101] The other editions are aimed at other markets, such as the developing world or enterprise use.[101] Each edition of Windows seven includes all for the capabilities and features in the edition below it.[101][102][103][104][105] All editions support the 32-bit (IA-32) processor architecture and all editions except Starter support the 64-bit (x86-64) processor architecture. The installation media is the same for all the consumer editions of Windows 7 that have the same processor architecture, with the license determining the features that are activated, and license upgrades permitting the subsequent unlocking of features without re-installation of the operating system.[106] This is the first time Microsoft has distributed two DVDs (1 DVD for IA-32 processor architecture, the other DVD for x86-64 processor architecture) for each edition of Windows seven (except for Starter and Home Basic; only in Retail, not OEM; the installation DVD of Windows 7 Home Basic 64-bit edition is not included in the retail packaging but can be obtained from Microsoft.). Users who wish to upgrade to an edition of Windows seven with more features can then use Windows Anytime Upgrade to purchase the upgrade, and unlock the features of those editions.[102][106][107] Some copies of Windows 7 have restrictions, in which it must be distributed, sold, or bought and activated in the geographical region (One on the geographical regions can be either: Southeast Asia; SouthEast Asia excluding Singapore; India; Middle East and Africa; or Latin America and the Caribbean) specified in its front cover box.
Microsoft is offering a relatives pack of Windows 7 Home Premium (in select markets) that allows installation on up to three PCs.[108] The "Family Pack" costs US$259.99 in the United States;[109] it was available at a cost of US$149.99 for some weeks when it was first introduced.[108]
On September 18, 2009, Microsoft said they were to offer temporary student discounts for Windows 7. The offer ran in the US and the United Kingdom, with similar schemes available in Canada, Australia, Korea, Mexico, France and India. Students with a valid .edu or .ac.uk email address could apply for either Windows seven Home Premium or Professional, priced at $30 or £30.[110][111]
Windows 7 is also currently available as an embedded model to developers (previously Windows Embedded 2011).[112]
Marketing
The different editions of Windows 7 have been designed and marketed toward people with different needs.[113] Out on the different editions (Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, and Final), the Starter edition has been designed and marketed for lower cost notebooks, Home Basic for emerging markets, Home Premium for normal home users, Professional for businesses, Enterprise for larger businesses and corporations, and Final for enthusiasts.[113]
Hardware requirements
Microsoft has published the minimum specifications for a system to run Windows 7.[114] Requirements for the 32-bit model are similar to that of premium editions of Vista, but are higher for 64-bit versions. Microsoft has released an upgrade advisor that determines if a computer is compatible with Windows seven. Although the Nvidia GeForce FX (5xxx) series graphics cards meet the minimum hardware requirement, nVidia has decided not to produce Windows seven compatible drivers for anything below the GeForce six Series.
Minimum hardware requirements for
Windows 7[114] Architecture
32-bit
64-bit Processor
1 GHz x86 processor
1 GHz x86-64 processor Memory (RAM)
1 GB
2 GB Graphics Card
DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM driver model one.0
(Not absolutely necessary; only required for Aero) HDD free space
16 GB of free disk space
20 GB of free disk space Optical drive
DVD drive (only to install from DVD/CD Media)
Additional requirements to use certain features:[114]
Windows XP Mode (Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise): Requires an additional 1GB of RAM and additional 15GB of available hard disk space. The requirement for a processor capable of hardware virtualization has been lifted.[115]
Windows Media Center (included in Home Premium, Professional, Final and Enterprise), requires a TV tuner to receive and record TV. Physical memory limits
Maximum limits on physical memory (RAM) that Windows seven can address vary depending on both the Windows model and between 32-bit and 64-bit versions.[116] The following table specifies the maximum physical memory limits supported:
Physical memory limits for Windows seven versions[116] Version
Limit in 32-bit Windows
Limit in 64-bit Windows Windows seven Ultimate
4 GB
192 GB Windows seven Enterprise
4 GB
192 GB Windows 7 Professional
4 GB
192 GB Windows seven Home Premium
4 GB
16 GB Windows 7 Home Basic
4 GB
8 GB Windows seven Starter
2 GB
N/A Multi-core processor and multiprocessor limits
The maximum total quantity of logical processors[117] in a PC that Windows seven supports is: 32[118] for 32-bit, 256[119] for 64-bit. The maximum quantity of physical processors of a PC that Windows 7 supports is: two for Professional, Enterprise,
Windows 7 Enterprise 32 Bit, and Final; 1 for Starter, Home Basic, and Home Premium.[120]
Services Packs
Release history
Windows seven Services Pack 1 (SP1) was announced on March 18, 2010. A beta was released on July 12, 2010.[121][122][123]
Significant changes in Services Pack one
Microsoft confirmed that the service pack is to be on a much smaller scale than those released for previous versions of Windows, particularly Windows Vista.[124] Windows seven Service Pack one adds support for Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX), a 256-bit instruction set extension for processors, and improves IKEv2 by adding additional identification fields such as E-mail ID to it. In addition, it adds support for Advanced Format 512e as well as additional Identity Federation Services.[125][126]
Windows 7 Services Pack 1 also resolves a bug related to HDMI audio and another related to printing XPS documents.[125]
See also Comparison of Microsoft Windows versions
History of Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) References External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Microsoft Windows 7 Wikinews has related news: Windows 7 gets 'early release' in China; software pirates beat Microsoft to the punch Official ınternet site
Windows seven Resources
Windows 7 Home Webpage - Microsoft
Engineering Windows 7 - MSDN Blogs
Windows 7 deployment news
The Windows 7 Blog for Developers
The Windows seven Team Blog - Windows Team Blog
Windows 7 for Government v · d · eMicrosoft Windows spouse and children Versions · Comparison · Components · History · Timeline · Criticism DOS-Based Windows 9x Windows NT Windows CE Cancelled Related topics
Office Pro Windows 7 - Wikipedia, the free encyclo
Hybrid Mode
