Windows 7 X64 WinHEC Microsoft shows off Windows

If final week was all about the eye candy coming in Windows 7, this week is far more concerning the less glitzy but core enhancements Microsoft is producing to its next-generation customer working program.
At the November five kick-off keynote at its Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in Los Angeles, Microsoft executives talked up some of the modifications Microsoft is generating to Windows seven to increase its reliability, battery everyday living, standards support along with other basic components in comparison to what’s available with Vista.
Jon DeVaan, the Senior Vice President in charge of Microsoft’s Core Running Program Division (COSD) , wasn’t shy about acknowledging a number of the complaints users have had with Vista before, during and after that product launched.
DeVaan told WinHEC attendees that Microsoft is committed to delivering “reliable builds” of Windows seven “so that when we say we’re going to ship Windows seven, you’ll believe us.”
(As many may recall, because of the delays and the “Longhorn Reset,” many OEMs, market watchers and others didn’t believe Microsoft was ready to release Vista to manufacturing almost right up until the day it did so in November 2006.)
Microsoft is providing WinHEC attendees with the same “M3″ (Milestone 3) pre-beta build that it gave to attendees of the Professional Developer Conference (PDC) final week.
This build dates back to September 2008. Microsoft is expecting to deliver a public beta of Windows 7 by early 2009, officials have said. (I am still hearing mid-December is the likely delivery date for this Beta.) Microsoft continues to hold fast to its “early 2010″ ultimate delivery date,Office 2007 Standard, though I am still hearing subsequent year — maybe even by mid-year — is the real target.)
As was true last week, DeVaan and other Microsoft execs aren’t yet providing even rough guidance as to how considerably faster Windows 7 ultimately will boot up, shut down, etc. (Earlier this year, Microsoft execs hinted that Windows 7 might boot up in under 15 seconds, but didn’t officially commit to that quantity.)
DeVaan talked up improvements that Microsoft is generating to “basic scenarios” with Windows 7. He called out Microsoft’s goals of improving startup/boot time with 7 and showed a “boot drag race” video to show how Windows 7, even in pre-beta form, already starts up seconds faster than Vista. He said Microsoft has tweaked Windows seven so that device drivers are loaded in parallel, instead of serially, and has reduced the variety of services that load at startup to achieve these enhancements. He also said Microsoft has fine-tuned seven to reduce memory consumption,Office Professional Plus 2010, noting that video cards will be managing their own memory, rather than relying on the Windows 7 technique memory management.
For laptop users, concerned with battery lifestyle, Microsoft has worked on Windows 7’s kernel,Windows 7 Discount, tweaking the system clock, so that the CPU will be able to get to idle and stay idle longer, according to DeVaan.
Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President of Windows and Windows Live Engineering — who headlined the Windows seven debut in the PDC last week — talked through 21 demos of Windows seven, highlighting everything from its touch assistance, to its ability to interact directly with sensors using a new Sensor software development kit.
Sinofsky showed off the Device Stage feature of Windows seven, which is aimed at generating it easier for users to interact with the various peripherals and devices connected to their PCs.  He highlighted the impmrovements Microsoft is creating to Home Group/home networking assistance. And Sinofsky spent a considerable amount of his keynote demonstrating that a full implementation of Windows seven will be able to run on netbook,Windows 7 Key, even as stripped down as an Asus Eee PC with 1 GB of RAM.
Sinofsky also talked up the Media Center functionality that will be part of Windows 7, noting that Microsoft is planning to touch-enable the Media Center UI, roll in the TV Pack (”Fiji”) functionality and strengthen boot time to make Media Center PCs extra like a typical living-room appliance,Windows 7 X64, in terms of startup-time expectations.
Microsoft is Webcasting the WinHEC keynotes on its Web site. Tomorrow will be all about Windows Server, and specifically Windows Server 2008 R2 (Windows 7 Server).