Windows 7

Windows "7"

Developer	Microsoft
OS family	Microsoft Windows NT
Source model	Closed source
Kernel type	Hybrid Kernel
License	Microsoft EULA
Support status
Preliminary development planning.

Windows "Seven" is a codename for a future version of Microsoft Windows. It is expected to be the successor to both Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Microsoft has announced it will target Windows "7" for a 2010 release, this was confirmed at the recent Microsoft Global Exchange conference in Orlando, Florida. According to "Smart Computing In Plain English", a technology magazine, work on it began right after Windows Vista was released. As of July 2007, the name of the operating system used internally is Windows "Seven" Microsoft,. A "Windows 7" has been noted in job postings as a working name for a project at Microsoft.

Microsoft has refrained from discussing the details about "Windows Seven" publicly as they focus on the release and marketing of Windows Vista, though some early details of various core operating system features have emerged at developer conferences such as Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in 2006.

Windows "Seven" should not be confused with Windows "Blackcomb", the codename used around the time of Windows XP's release, in 2001, for the successor to Windows "Longhorn". At the time Microsoft's stated plan was to release an interim update to Windows XP (Windows NT 5.1) within one or two years and follow on with Windows "Blackcomb" (Windows NT 6) sometime in 2005. "Longhorn" itself was to have few major features (similar to the difference between Windows 95 and Windows 98). However, after prolonged delays the operating system codenamed "Longhorn" came to acquire many of the features slated for "Blackcomb" (such as a Direct3D accelerated GUI and a core API layer that replaces Win32). Windows "Longhorn" was eventually released as Windows Vista (Windows NT version 6). Although the status of Windows "Blackcomb" was never made official (although it was sometimes said to refer to a server version of Vista), the codename has likely been discarded as no longer relevant. From the perspective of 2001, Windows "Vista" is Windows "Blackcomb," albeit in a less ambitious form.

Focus

Around the time of Windows XP's release, internal sources pitched "Blackcomb" as being not just a major revision of Windows, but a complete departure from the way users today typically think about interacting with a computer. For instance, the "Start"/"Taskbar" philosophy, introduced in Windows 95, might have been replaced by the "new interface." Additionally, a completely new paradigm for storing files was to be incorporated, and the window by which software accesses core operating system functionality would be revamped for the first time in over a decade. Although some elements of this vision have made it through to Windows Vista (in particular the new programmer APIs, the 3D acceleration, and vague vestiges of the original vision for a new user interface), Windows Vista is not commonly seen to be a stark departure from the tradition set down with Windows 95 (and, incidentally, with the long-winded task lists of Microsoft Bob). It is not clear if Microsoft still holds ambitious plans for Windows "Vienna" or if its spirit has been affected by the long, painful road to Windows Vista.

Nevertheless, it has been publicly stated that the team that designed the Ribbon interface for Microsoft Office 2007 will play an active part in redesigning Windows Explorer and possibly other UI elements. In that sense, we can expect that the user interface paradigms will change significantly. Perhaps, even, the powerful organizational capability of the Ribbon interface will permit Windows to adopt significant new functionality. However, it is to be seen how far the Ribbon interface will be exploited.

On February 9 2007, Microsoft's Ben Fathi claimed that the focus on the operating system was still being worked out, and could merely hint at some possibilities:

"We're going to look at a fundamental piece of enabling technology. Maybe it's hypervisors. I don't know what it is" [...] "Maybe it's a new user interface paradigm for consumers."

Bill Gates, in an interview with Newsweek, also suggested that the next version of Windows would "be more user-centric." When asked to clarify what he meant, Gates said:

"That means that right now when you move from one PC to another, you've got to install apps on each one, do upgrades on each one. Moving information between them is very painful. We can use Live Services to know what you're interested in. So even if you drop by a [public] kiosk or somebody else's PC, we can bring down your home page, your files, your fonts, your favorites and those things. So that's kind of the user-centric thing that Live Services can enable. [Also,] in Vista, things got a lot better with [digital] ink and speech, but by the next release there will be a much bigger bet. Students won't need textbooks; they can just use these tablet devices. Parallel computing is pretty important for the next release. We'll make it so that a lot of the high-level graphics will be just built into the operating system. So we've got a pretty good outline."

Other features

Several other features originally planned for Windows Vista may be part of "Windows 7", depending on when they are finished.

"Windows 7" will also feature the sandboxed approach discussed during the Alpha/White Box development phase for Longhorn/Vista. All non-managed code will run in a sandboxed environment where access to the "outside world" is restricted by the operating system. Access to raw sockets will be disabled from within the sandbox, as will direct access to the file system, hardware abstraction layer (HAL), and complete memory addressing. All access to outside applications, files, and protocols will be regulated by the operating system, and any malicious activity will be halted immediately. If this approach is successful, it bodes very well for security and safety, as it is virtually impossible for a malicious application to cause any damage to the system if it is locked inside a metaphorical 'glass box.' As well, this sandboxed environment will be able to adapt itself to the code base it was written for. This will alleviate most problems that arise from back compatibility when a new operating system is made.

Another feature mentioned by Bill Gates is "a pervasive typing line that will recognize the sentence that [the user is] typing in." The implications of this could be as simple as a "complete as you type" function as found in most modern search engines, (e.g. Google Suggest), ENSO, or as complex as being able to give verbal commands to the PC without any concern for syntax. Possibly, it may be a command-line interface based around Windows PowerShell. In fact, it's already been said that future GUI management tools will be wrappers around PowerShell, so incorporating a direct command-line in these tools is natural.

Backward compatibility

Microsoft confirmed at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC 2007) in Los Angeles, that Windows Server 2008 will be the last 32-bit release of Windows Server that Microsoft develops, implying that future releases will be exclusively 64-bit.

Microsoft has determined Windows Seven will come in both 32- and 64-bit flavors.

This means that, that systems with 32-bit processors will be supported.