Both the Windows 7 RC and the Windows 7 RC SDK are available for download; make sure you get them quickly. As Brandon mentioned in his post, with this release we are coming down the home stretch to release of the final product. Now is when you need to be working on your applications to make sure they are Windows 7 Compatible. On top of that, you can use new Windows 7 features such as the Sensor and Location Platform, Taskbar, Libraries, Multi-Touch, the new Graphics APIs, the Windows Ribbon, and many other important and exciting technologies offered by Windows 7 to Light Up your applications. We covered some of these features in previous posts, and we will continue to do so.
The Windows 7 RC incorporates user feedback from Beta users and includes a few new features we have already covered in Some Changes Since Beta for RC and A few more changes from Beta to RC….
We hope that you will install the Windows 7 RC build soon so you can start testing your application and taking advantage of the new features and technologies Windows 7 offers. We’ve created a short list of resources to help get you started programming for Windows 7:
- The Windows page on MSDN is the one-stop shop for Windows client developers
- At Develop for Windows 7 you can find all the information you need about specific technologies like Direct2D, Taskbar, Sensor and Location, Power Shell 2, Windows Ribbon, and many more
- Windows Application Compatibility is the one page you want to visit to make sure your application runs properly on Windows 7. This page includes content and tools to test and fix any application compatibility issues
- Directly accessible from that page, is the Windows 7 Application Quality Cookbook
- Also still very relevant, is the Windows Vista Application Compatibility Cookbook. Most Windows 7 compatibility issues are the direct result of the changes introduced in the Windows Vista timeframe, and are included as topics in this Cookbook (UAC, Session 0 Service Isolation, IE Protected Mode, etc.), which is a great starting point for addressing these issues
- New Windows 7 videos on the Channel 9 Windows page explore specific features and technologies, and are great “windows” to the Windows engineering team
- As always, the E7 blog is an amazing source of the engineering back story behind Windows 7
- For IT-Pro, we have our SPRINGBOARD SERIES
And, of course, continue to watch for our new posts on specific Windows 7 features