Microsoft Internal Memo ties Windows Live to Windows 7

Martin | Apr 30, 2008 | View Comments

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In an internal memo for Windows Live Wave 3 which dates back to August 2007 several Microsoft executives, including Chris Jones, Corporate Vice President of Windows Live Experience, David Treadwell, Corporate Vice President of Live Platform Services and Brian Arbogast, Corporate Vice President of Mobile Services outline their plans for the next stage of Windows Live services and how they will be tightly integrated with other Microsoft products including Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer and Windows.

What’s interesting from our viewpoint is that Windows 7 is mentioned several times throughout the memo and that this reveals new information about the new Microsoft operating system codenamed Windows 7.

The first quote below outlines the plans to provide a seamless integration of Windows Live services on the Windows 7 plattform by working with the Windows 7 team which automatically gives Windows Live a huge headstart over every other service that might provide a similar experience.

While we will target a seamless experience on Windows Vista, we will make a bet on the Windows 7 platform and experience, and create the best experience when connected with Windows 7. We will work with the Windows 7 team and be a first and best developer of solutions on the Windows 7 platform.
Our experiences will be designed so when they are connected to Windows 7 they seamlessly extend the Windows experience, and we will work to follow the Windows 7 style guidelines for applications. We will work with the Internet Explorer 8 team to make sure we deliver an experience that seamlessly extends the browser with our toolbar and other offerings.

The memo continues by laying emphasize on the seamless integration and ease of use on the Windows 7 plattform.

“We have an opportunity to make it much easier for customers to ‘get started’ with Windows Live. Our goal should be to have customers log in, type their Live ID, and then they are automatically ’set up’ with Live. For new machines, we want Windows Live to come with the experience and will consider investments to make this experience easy. For customers who are upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7, we will explore ways to make it easy for them to get Windows Live – particularly for photos, calendar, and movies where our applications complete the experience.”

The next paragraph explains the plans to provide the best Windows Live user experience in Windows 7 by “lighting up” on the plattform.

The Windows 7 platform provides new enhancements that allow us to deliver even richer experiences for customers. We will invest in differentiated features that “light up” on Windows 7, and in this theme we will identify these “signature elements” – gestures, ribbon, or other – that make our suite best on Windows 7. We will explore innovations in graphics and presentation, including window management and high-DPI support, that make our applications feel distinct and “pop” on the new platform.

During the time the memo was issued Windows 7 was still in very early stages and that has not changed a lot since then. This means that it is a bit early to draw hasty conclusions about the impact of Windows Live on the Windows 7 plattform has.

We can expect a tight link between Windows Live and Windows 7 and Microsoft will surely try to push Windows Live with the Windows 7 plattform.

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