Operating Systems > Windows 7Essentials

Tuesday, Microsoft unveiled its work on Windows 7, the successor to Vista, to a crowd at the Professional Developers Conference that was salivating for information on what's new in the updated operating system. A lot of sites will take you through the whiz-bang consumer-friendly features, but you might be wondering as an IT professional what Windows 7 has to offer you.

Leaked copies of Windows 7 hit the Internet only hours after Microsoft handed out a preview build to developers last week, according to searches at several BitTorrent tracking sites.

Microsoft on Tuesday for the first time publicly demonstrated Windows 7, the next major release of its OS for PCs that Microsoft insists will reflect lessons learned from the widely panned Windows Vista.

Microsoft may release Windows 7 as early as next November, bloggers speculated Wednesday, pointing to postings on the company's own Web site and comments made by the CEO of Asus, the company that makes the popular Eee PC line of netbooks.

Windows 7 will be like Windows Vista, but more so, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer said today as he defended the first two years of Vista and claimed its successor will be a major release.

After users disputed his count, a Microsoft executive explained how the company concluded that the upcoming Windows 7 is the seventh version of the operating system.

Microsoft has announced that the code name for its next operating system, Windows 7, will be the product's official name.

Microsoft has seeded its most popular corporate patch product with references to Windows 7, the upcoming replacement for Windows Vista, according to network administrators.

Microsoft has been fairly reticent about the development of the next client version of its Windows OS, code-named Windows 7. But in a blog entry Thursday, Microsoft said it will finally give developers their first in-depth look at the OS at its forthcoming Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in October.

The blog 'Winners of Life' has posted a number of interesting screenshots allegedly from the latest build of Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista.

Microsoft Tuesday broke silence about the next edition of its flagship operating system, but essentially all it said is it would not talk publicly about Windows 7.

Windows 7 will feature multi-touch screen technology among many features Microsoft revealed Tuesday night during the first official demo of the software.

I had an interesting conversation this past week with Ben Rudolph, former marketing guru at Parallels and now a member of the Microsoft Windows 7 team. Apparently, my recent pronouncement of death for his new charge struck a nerve. In addition to setting up a flurry of conference calls with his fellow team members, Ben picked my brain a bit about what I felt they needed to do/say to salvage their next generation desktop OS.

Urban legends are strange creatures. Even when they're exposed for what they are -- tall tales seemingly "legitimized" through frequent retelling -- people continue to believe the lie.

Microsoft next week will distribute a pre-beta of Windows Server 2008 R2 to a select group of testers and highlight the software's virtualization capabilities, integration with Windows 7 and other features.