What’s new in Windows 7

William Maher | Sep 19, 2008 4:46 PM
Stewart Mitchell delivers his verdict on the features rumoured to be ready for Windows 7, including the new kernel, multi-touch, and virtual drives.
Microsoft’s next operating system is creeping quietly towards us, under cover because company officials have so far refused to talk Windows 7 up.

The current rumour is that the Windows 7 beta announcement will take place at the Microsoft Professional Developer's Conference (PDC) next month on October 27 (see our story here).

What we do know is that it should be released in January 2010.

Nevertheless, snippets have escaped Microsoft HQ. The biggest hints came at a public display of eye-candy at the end of May. Anxious to reclaim lost ground on Apple,

Microsoft jumped in with an imagination-capturing multitouch display that allows the user to paint with several fingers at once on a touchscreen, play the piano, or move and reshape pictures with specific gestures.

We’ve scoured the rumour mill to separate fact from fiction, and while every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, the conclusions are unofficial – and subject to change.

New kernel
Early rumours of Windows 7 promised a sleek, streamlined operating system based on a waif-like kernel called MinWin, which was more componentised than Vista and would improve performance across the platform. According to Microsoft engineer Eric Traut, the idea was about “stripping out all the layers above to create a really clean architecture”. He claimed the revamped kernel could have squeezed into as little as 25MB.

However, Microsoft has since poured cold water on the MinWin prophesy with a statement that it “isn’t creating a new kernel for Windows 7. We’re refining the kernel architecture and componentisation model introduced in Windows Vista”.

Instead, the kernel seems more likely to be a refinement of what we’ve seen in Vista and Windows Server 2008. “The key issue is that making big changes can have a de-stabilising effect on an OS, and creates all manner of compatibility and other issues,” said Michael Cherry, lead analyst for Windows at Microsoft. “The last thing Windows needs at this point is a lot of architectural changes.”

VERDICT Although MinWin elements may feature, Diet Windows is more likely to arrive in the version after Windows 7.

Synchronisation central
As the world moves to always-connected computing, keeping files updated across hardware is critical and Windows 7 should address Microsoft’s weaknesses in this area. For example, mobile phone synchronisation is likely to be built into the operating system.

At a Windows Digital Lifestyle Consortium in Tokyo, Bill Gates talked of Windows 7 having “more connections up to the mobile phone”, and that “if you have two personal computers, your files are automatically synchronised between them, so you don’t have a lot of work to move data back and forth”. The feature would borrow heavily from Live Mesh, a folder synchronisation tool Microsoft has been beta testing.

“I can see file synchronisation being a big feature for people who have more than one computer,” said Gary Kellett, managing director of Microsoft solutions provider Expersys. “Although you can get this by using Groove as part of Office 2007, I suspect it will end up as part of the OS, as the code has already been developed.”

Also improving connectivity – especially in home networks – is HomeGroups, a feature set to make it easier to create secure networks for sharing pictures, music and other files.

VERDICT Better synchronisation is a must if Windows 7 is to meet the needs of consumers with multiple devices.

End of keyboard/mouse era
The most anticipated element of Windows 7 is the hyped multitouch screen capabilities, where users interact with the PC by pointing or dragging digits across the screen.

Microsoft is talking up touch as a replacement for keyboards and mice for certain tasks.
Sneak previews promise vibrant interaction with all areas of the OS, with Paint being the most obvious. Tools such as photo galleries are expected to benefit from touch controls for moving pictures around a desktop, à la Surface, and to zoom in on pictures by pinching two fingers across the screen.

Whether touch will do for Windows what it did for the iPhone is uncertain, and might depend on the price premium for the screens, which could be as little as $50. “The mouse and keyboard are very strong input devices, and it’s hard to see a killer app for this on desktops, but it might be more appealing on laptops,” said Pete Gamby, research director at DisplayCast.

VERDICT A racing certainty, given that Microsoft rolled out both Gates and Ballmer to demonstrate the interface earlier this year.

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.
This article appeared in the October, 2008 issue of PC Authority.