Pie chart menus
Multitouch grabbed the headlines, but the rumoured new “pie chart” menus might prove more useful. The circular menus appeared briefly in a presentation by Microsoft’s Julie Larson-Green, and are supposedly more able as radial slices of pie make cursor move distances shorter and are more efficient to navigate.
Users also develop “muscle memory” to speed up access to required tools. The pie menu may only appear in “touch” mode, and it’s unknown whether it will appear across the OS or only in certain apps.
VERDICT Touchscreen-friendly controls are vital, given the multitouch hype.
Virtual hard drive
One feature that looks both plausible and useful is the inclusion of virtual hard disks (VHDs), which could have major bonuses for administrators and home users alike. Eagle-eyed Windows watchers spotted an advert calling for developers and the posting gives some insight as to what Microsoft has in mind.
“In Windows 7, our team will be responsible for creating, mounting, performing I/O on, and dismounting VHDs natively,” the advert oozed. “Imagine being able to mount a VHD on any Windows machine, do some offline servicing and then boot from that same VHD. Or taking a VHD you use within Virtual Server, and boost performance by booting natively from it.”
VHDs promise simpler backups, and users could install the file on many systems and have the same portable experience on each machine. A VHD for gaming could optimise system configuration to boost performance and for legacy support in Windows 7, by providing VHDs including all the essential elements to run XP programs.
VERDICT A tough task, but intended for inclusion if it can be made to work.
Voice and handwriting
Microsoft has set its crosshairs on the keyboard and mouse, and speech and handwriting recognition are also being revamped. “The way you interact with the system will change dramatically,” Bill Gates said recently. “In future, the role of speech, vision and ink will be huge.”
In April, Microsoft released a pre-beta version of the Windows Speech Recognition Macros, which it says extends the usefulness of the speech-recognition capabilities in Vista. “Macros can be as simple as inserting your mailing address to as complex as providing a completely different speech interaction utilising number capabilities or utilising custom JScript/VBScript actions,” the company claimed.
The release was billed as a technical preview of technology Microsoft plans to release in the future – possibly in Windows 7. However, despite all the promises, experts remain sceptical. “Due to the complexity of the commands performed within an OS, it would be difficult to get this feature to work well,” said Kellet.
Tools such as the InkAnalysis API – available to developers in Vista – could lead to better handwriting recognition given the touch capabilities in Windows 7, but Microsoft isn’t prepared to reveal any details at this stage.
VERDICT Windows dressing.
Building blocks for balance
Componentisation will aim to make Windows 7 more secure, scalable for various devices, and will enable Microsoft to work on updates to the OS without the rest of the platform suffering.
The componentised functionality has been available in embedded Windows for some time, and is ideal for minimal single-task computation. A Microsoft spokesperson said the company’s plans to expand the componentisation in Vista into Windows 7 will help it “make future changes to specific components more quickly, because the effects of those changes will be better isolated and won’t impact the user experience or reduce application compatibility”.
However, such chop-and-change focus may not work for all end users, experts say, and could see the plans scaled back before the OS is released.
“It could be confusing to inexperienced users,” said Kellett. “So I don’t see Windows being componentised to this level, except in server offerings, as these will be installed by engineers who understand what components they
are installing and leaving out.”
VERDICT More likely to be baby steps towards componentisation rather than
a radical carve-up.