Windows 7 Presentation Recap

Martin | Jun 02, 2008 | Comments

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I guess everyone has already seen the touchscreen presentation from the All Things Digital conference a few days ago. While most eyes were glued to that main presentation it turned out that Microsoft was revealing more information than they wanted to reveal at that point. Long Zheng has already written a great article about the taskbar that was shown during the presentation of the multi-touch feature of Windows 7. He discovered the following information about the Windows 7 taskbar:

  • The taskbar is higher than usual, probably 1.75x as high as the normal taskbar
  • The Windows orb still sticks the upper part out of the taskbar
  • The taskbar is divided into different colored sections
  • The system tray is not touching the edge of the screen
  • Two lines for the date and icons in the middle of the taskbar
  • Larger Quick Launch icons

There was another interesting tidbit that could lead to some speculation. During the presentation Julie Larson Green’s opens a circle menu by pressing her finger on the screen for a short period of time.

circle menu

That circle menu (or pie menu) could be an indication that Microsoft will introduce circle menus in Windows 7 on a broader scale, at least for the time when a user is using the touch interface. It’s not yet clear if the touch menu shown was purely related to the application or if it was a broader menu that works in full screen applications.

From the visible icons (plane, earth) I would say that it is a specific menu of the application which does not mean that other menus or even the Windows desktop will not have a pie menu as well.

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About the Author: Martin Brinkmann is an Online Journalist from Germany who discovered his love for technology in high school. He is currently working as a freelancer for several publications and runs his own Internet website Ghacks

  • nick
    When Julie Larson Green is using paint you could see that those icons in the taskbar aren't quik launch icons (because you could see the icon of the opened window paint  program) so  i think that means that the taskbar in windows 7 will not show a little icon with the name of the program or folder like in the previous versions of windows. but instead a big icon. interesting
  • Satsuki
    Just because the icons in the "pie menu" may resemble icons in the applications, it doesn't mean that it's for this application only. The pie menu may include options on a per-application basis.

    God knows.  But isn't this fun? Speculation. lol

    Keep bringing on the news! :P
  • Nathan
    If this is a taste of what is to come I'm sticking with XP for another 5 years. That or I'll move to Linux. Microsoft and Apple are both making one huge mistake. They forget practicality. They throw in features that either cause bugs, or won't be used, or are just annoying. Then they don't even give you the enhancements you really need. Everything I need is in XP, and I still stand by it as what M$ should have built off of. Vista was a move in the complete wrong direction.

    This is a computer, a machine for doing multitudes of tasks. It's not a multimedia center. I don't want Mac OS and I don't want Vista 2.0. I want a better, more solid, much faster XP. Is that so much to ask?
  • Sean
    If M$ can't achieve what they were suppose to with Vista, they should just leave PC's alone. Make phones or keep making gaming systems or something. This "Windows 7" does not look like it has the potential to be a successor to Vista. People are really getting tired of this. M$ really went the other way around releasing that tragedy of a OS known as "Vista". Just like Nathan said, they could have just made a better XP. But NOOO they want to shamefully mimic OS X type features and failed with it miserably.
  • Snoopy
    This will only be of any use as a media center for the home or controlling various devices in the home. I can just imagine having to reach forward to touch the screen every time I want to move something...
    it'll be more of a flop than vista. The comments here are correct, improve XP, I'll be using that for a few years to come by the look of things.
  • yes
    Looks like some people posting here are scared of the future.

    A more improved XP? Some could argue that Vista is a more improved XP. I'm looking forward to Windows 7 and it's not because of the touch screen, it's because of the streamlined kernel and the slick looking virtual machines included. As an IT Professional the virtual machine aspect included in Windows 7 is great for backwards compatibility. For example, if the accounting department needs to access a file running off accpac from 10 years ago they can view/use it in a virtual machine from Windows 7. Someone mentioned on here that they will switch to linux because OS X and Vista is no good.... have you used Ubuntu? it's quite similar to OS X but with more tweaking needed and an understanding of the Linux commands / syntax if you want to get the most out of it. Someone else also stated that Vista shamefully copied OS X features... have you used OS X? what features? technology grows and operating systems go with the technology.

    One day (love it or hate it) tv, video, music and other features will probably all run off the same "media center" in your house with other computers in different areas of the house acting more like dumb terminals connected to the media center computer. Don't be scared of the future!
  • BG
    I'm no vista groupie but i agree that some of the previous comments don't make much sense. Think about it, in the same way that i've disabled the totally unnecessary Aero and many of the bloat processes that come with vista, Common sense would assume that with the supposed slimmer more effecient kernel and new modular nature of windows 7 the whole touch screen thing would be an optional feature. More than likely being only included in Windows 7 "Ultimate" or something of that nature.

    There's nothing wrong with an operating system having a powerful media center. I just fear that that computing experience of individuals who use that net for more than music and porn is being shaped by the majority who think of a pc as an "oogle" box.
  • Sean
    Grow with what future? - a M$ future?, that's more of a fiasco than a future. The feature that Vista "tried" to copy from OS X is the sidebar which makes it look like a bootlegged OS X dock. How could technology grow with a pointless OS?. Here we have computer manufacturing companies distributing desktops/laptops with more ram and faster processors but with a incompetent OS that even its well own "futuristic" interface takes up more resources than its last OS did. It's just nonsense on that OS.
  • Josh
    Sean get a grip.
    Almost nothing in osx is original anyway, think about it!
    The os is built of free bsd unix (not apple), the web browser is made from the konquerer browser (linux browser), the dock type app has been around on linux prior to osx and windows from 2000 had something very similar(drag a file to the side of the screen and see what happens, its in xp too).
     Btw the original apple gui was taken on licence from xerox anyway.
     I have vista ultimate running on my laptop and it runs very well, smooth infact and thats even true when i have the aero interface on. All the speed tests i have seen where the test computer has a quad core processor and 4 gb of ram Vista actualy beats xp on most things.
     Plus the increased security (alot of security firms think it is more secure than osx, and please dont make the mistake that few virsus mean good security.)
     If you want an os like xp how about Vista basic or Vista buisness, there not media centre os's like home premium or ultimate.
     Btw like some have mentioned you can switch back to windows classic mode.
  • Forget about Windows already. Ubuntu Linux is going to kill them short before long.
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