Windows 7 Team Blog : Dell

Windows 7’s Big Day Tomorrow + New Offers Announced!

Brandon LeBlanc — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:06:41 GMT

Tomorrow’s our big day – Windows 7 officially launches and hits General Availability (or GA as we have acronyms for everything). That means Windows 7 will be available for purchase worldwide! I thought I’d take a moment to highlight some things to look out for as Windows 7 becomes available in stores and online around the world.

We have big events happening in many countries, including: Japan, UK, Germany, France, China and more. Plus we’re hosting a launch party in New York City tomorrow, which will be hosted by our own CEO Steve Ballmer. Even if you’re not in New York, you can still attend online.

Watch the New York City Windows 7 Launch Party LIVE – Starting 8am Pacific / 11am Eastern!

Customer-hosted Windows 7 Launch Parties will also be taking place starting tomorrow. As you know, Microsoft employee Windows 7 launch parties have been happening already. If you don’t live in a country where Launch Parties are available to host, you can hold a Windows 7 Meetup instead! We are providing people with the resources they need to host a Meetup here on Windows.com.

We will be updating our Virtual Press Room on Microsoft PressPass for Windows 7throughout the day tomorrow. You will be able to find all kinds of goodies including the webcast of our New York launch party, video clips and b-roll footage, photos, fact sheets and other materials, and more. If you’re planning to blog about Windows 7 tomorrow, this will be an excellent resource for you!

I’ve got several important (and pretty exciting) blog posts coming tomorrow that you’ll definitely want to read. So be on the lookout for these. And we have quite a few partners lined up doing guest blog posts for the Windows Partner Blog as well! I’m pretty stoked about what we’ve got lined up in terms of blogging for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is shaping up for one exciting day!

Beginning tomorrow, several very cool new offers will start that customers can take advantage of to get Windows 7:

Screaming Deals: We worked together with our partners to introduce a series of limited-time offers with great deals on hardware, software, upgrades, support, and other options. New offers will be released daily and available for the next 7 days here on Windows.com ~~(site goes live tomorrow – stay tuned for link!)~~ as well as through participating retail and OEM partners. These “7 Days of Windows 7” offers are available in the U.S. only (other countries have specific deals as well). Tomorrow is Day 1 and those offers will include:

Best Buy Bundle: HP Laptop, Desktop PC with monitor, Netbook, wireless router and set-up by Geek Squad for $1,199. For the price of one average Mac, you can outfit your entire family with 3 great Windows 7 PCs and a home network!
Dell: Save more than $100 on a Dell Studio XPS13
Gateway: All-in-one Acer Gateway ZX6800 23" for $899

Buy a PC - Get a Discounted Upgrade for another PC: Customers who buy a PC with Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate will be able to purchase a discounted copy of Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate to upgrade an existing Windows PC. For people wanting to add a 2nd or 3rd PC in their home (and take advantage of HomeGroup) this is the perfect deal. This offer will run through January 2nd, 2010 and be available in Germany, UK, Czech Republic, Greece, Slovakia, Poland, Latvia, Hungary, U.S., Canada, Denmark, France, New Zealand, Australia.

Windows 7 Family Pack: The Windows 7 Family Pack is also available today while supplies last. Customers can buy 3 licenses of Windows 7 Home Premium for one low price – for the U.S. it’s available for $149.99. The Windows 7 Family Pack is available in the U.S., Japan, Canada, Germany, UK, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Ireland, Luxembourg, Sweden. One of my favorite features in Windows 7 today is HomeGroup. And with the Windows 7 Family Pack, you can truly take advantage of this feature for easy sharing of your music, pictures, video, and document libraries with the Windows 7 PCs in your home, as well as your Xbox 360.

Windows 7 Student Offer: If you are a student (an .edu email address is required), you can upgrade to Windows 7 at the LOWEST PRICE offered, $29.99 in the U.S. This offer runs through January 3rd, 2010 for US, Canada, France, Germany, Korea, Mexico and UK and March 31st, 2010 for Australia.

UPDATE: For more information on the Windows 7 Student Offer, click here.

One more thing… How would you change the world? We have a contest running asking folks to submit an idea they have on how they would use Windows 7 to help their local community. Record a video of yourself explaining your idea and submit it here on the 7 Ways to Change the World website. You have until November 11th to submit your video. The 7 people with the best submissions, as chosen by our judges, will each win a new PC running Windows 7. Each winner's chosen (eligible) community organization will receive a $7,000 grant.

Windows XP Mode RC Now Available

Brandon LeBlanc — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:59:49 GMT

Back in April, we introduced the Windows XP Mode beta and after a few months of incorporating your enthusiastic feedback, today we are announcing the availability of the Windows XP Mode Release Candidate.

Download: Windows XP Mode Release Candidate

As you may know, Windows XP Mode is specially designed for small and medium-sized businesses to help ease the migration process to Windows 7 by providing additional compatibility for their older productivity applications. The newly updated Windows XP Mode now works with the RC and RTM versions of the Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise SKUs.

Before I get into what has changed from beta to RC, I’d like to take a moment to clarify what Windows XP Mode is designed for, and highlight the point that in many cases Windows XP Mode will not be necessary. Windows 7 has a strong compatibility story with Windows Vista, and many applications that currently run on Windows XP-based or Windows Vista-based PCs should just run natively on Windows 7 – allowing you to take advantage of better performance, better management and better security built into Windows 7. In most cases, we recommend running applications natively in Windows 7. Windows XP Mode provides what we like to call that “last mile” compatibility technology for those cases when a Windows XP productivity application isn’t compatible with Windows 7. Users can run and launch Windows XP productivity applications in Windows XP Mode directly from a Windows 7 desktop. I also strongly recommend that customers install anti-malware and anti-virus software in Windows XP Mode so that Windows XP Mode environment is well protected. For customers that manage several Windows PCs running Windows XP Mode and want to simplify management tasks, we offer Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) as part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack.

New Features in Windows XP Mode RC

Based on feedback from the Windows XP Mode beta, we’ve made several improvements to the usability of Windows XP Mode for small and medium-sized business users:

You can now attach USB devices to Windows XP Mode applications directly from the Windows 7 task-bar. This means your USB devices, such as printers and flash drives, are available to applications running in Windows XP Mode, without the need to go into full screen mode.
You can now access Windows XP Mode applications with a “jump-list”. Right click on the Windows XP Mode applications from the Windows 7 task bar to select and open most recently used files.
You now have the flexibility of customizing where Windows XP Mode differencing disk files are stored.
You can now disable drive sharing between Windows XP Mode and Windows 7 if you do not need that feature.
The initial setup now includes a new user tutorial about how to use Windows XP Mode.

Customer and Partner Comments on Windows XP Mode

We are very excited that our customers and our partners see the value of Windows XP Mode. We collected testimonials from some customers testing Windows XP Mode; you can view videos from some of these customers here.

Many PCs can take advantage of Windows XP Mode, thanks to hardware capable of virtualization.

PC manufacturers are using Intel processors with Intel Virtualization Technology on virtually all of their Intel systems aimed at small- to enterprise-size businesses. All PCs using Intel Core 2 processors with Intel vPro technology include Intel Virtualization technology. You can verify that an Intel processor has Intel Virtualization Technology here.

In addition, by Windows 7 launch all AMD CPUs shipping to customers, except Sempron, will include hardware virtualization. Here is what Margaret Lewis, Director of Commercial Software and Solutions from AMD says about supporting hardware virtualization and Windows XP Mode:

With XP Mode, Microsoft has built-in client virtualization technology that makes it easy to install and run Windows XP applications directly from a Windows 7-based PC, allowing users to enjoy the benefits of Windows 7 while maintaining support for legacy applications. AMD has worked closely with Microsoft to deliver highly optimized virtualization platforms and this new operating system continues the maturation of client virtualization while making use of AMD innovations.

We are also working with OEM partners to include Windows XP Mode preinstalled on new PCs.

Michelle Pearcy, director of Global Software Marketing at Dell, discusses the importance of integrating with Microsoft for Windows XP Mode:

Our customers expect their applications to simply work, regardless of their selected operating system. Windows XP Mode provides them with the confidence to migrate to Windows 7 while maintaining access to mission critical applications. Dell worked closely with Microsoft on the development of Windows XP Mode and provided input so that our customers can easily transition to Windows 7, which is a safer, more secure and efficient operating system.

Carlos Montalvo, Vice President of Experience Marketing on the Personal Systems Group at HP, talks about how HP intends to take full advantage of Windows 7 with their products:

For more than two years HP has collaborated closely with Microsoft on the development of Windows 7, contributing important innovations. HP is working to ensure our customers can take full advantage of the latest Windows 7 technologies such as offering our small and medium business customers the flexibility to run legacy applications. Our latest high performance multi-core enabled Windows 7 PCs will take advantage of Windows XP Mode once it is released.

Peter Schrady, Vice President and General Manager of Software, Peripherals and Enterprise Products at Lenovo discusses optimizing their PCs for Windows 7 and Windows XP Mode:

We’ve optimized our Think-branded PCs for Windows 7 and Windows XP Mode so businesses can enjoy the latest computing platform while still being able to use legacy applications that are supported only in Windows XP. Giving users seamless integration in a virtual environment is another way we’re working together to support commercial customers that have limited resources to spend on IT.

At the beta, there were concerns about the licensing for anti-virus and security software under Windows XP Mode and as we progressed to RC, we worked closely with those partners. Today, Kaspersky and Symantec confirmed their software will be supported in Windows XP Mode in addition to running on Windows 7 natively. We continue to work with additional anti-virus and security vendors to ensure their software will also support Windows XP Mode.

Here’s what Alexey Kalgin, Director of Product Marketing on the Corporate Business Division at Kaspersky Lab says:

By working with Microsoft, we are confident that Kaspersky Lab will provide XP users running Windows 7 in a virtual environment with an excellent security option that is easy to manage, and protects their valuable data without slowing them down. With the continued dramatic increase in malware and web attacks, our mission is to provide the best security possible for end-users and keep them educated and aware about the evolving threats. Our Kaspersky Lab technical prototype for Windows 7 has been installed by more than 950K people since January. Thanks to collaboration with Microsoft, we have received an exceptional amount of valuable feedback from testers that will enable us to ensure that our products are fully compatible and permit everyone to safely take advantage of the new and unique features of Windows 7.

Blake McConnell, Senior Director, Product Management, SMB Security Solutions, Symantec, discussed the importance of running security software in Windows XP Mode:

Symantec has a long history of securing, managing, and assuring the availability of millions of desktops, laptops and servers running Microsoft Windows and other Microsoft applications. Symantec security products will give customers running Windows XP Mode on Windows 7 the peace of mind that their systems are up-to-date and protected from complex security threats including malware, spam, and viruses.

Please note: Windows XP Mode RC requires RC or RTM version of Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate or Enterprise. It also requires additional 1 GB of RAM, 15 GB of available disk space, and processor capable of hardware virtualization with AMD-V or Intel VT turned on in the BIOS.

OEMs Pick Up Windows 7 RTM Code Today in Redmond

Brandon LeBlanc — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 07:50:21 GMT

When we announced Windows 7 had RTM’d on Wednesday, I posted that OEMs would receive the RTM code within a few days. Well, it’s been a few days! Earlier today, a handful of OEMs arrived in Redmond to pick up their RTM code. In the past when a Windows release reaches RTM, we have traditionally given some/selected OEMs the opportunity to come to Redmond and pick up the RTM code personally. I thought it would be neat to showcase these OEMs that came to campus today as the RTM code is handed off to them to begin preparing for General Availability (GA) on October 22, 2009!

HP: On right is Sean Kovacs, HP DTO Onsite Engineer. On the left is Titan Yang, HP Systems Engineer.

Toshiba: On the right is Hideki Yagi, Director at Toshiba. On the left is Michael Henry, Global Alliance Manager for Toshiba. On the far left is Greg Taylor from Microsoft and on the far right is Mari Kitajima also with Microsoft.

Lenovo: In the middle is Nicole Hopper from Lenovo. On the left of her is James Hendergart and to her right is Zhan Ding both of Microsoft.

Asus: On the left is Derek Li, Systems Engineer from Asus. On the right is David He from Microsoft.

Acer: On the left is Yifan Li, Engineer from Acer. On the right is Clint Woon from Microsoft.

Dell: On the middle right is Christian Piccini, Software Engineer from Dell. On the far left is Jay Hendricks, Senior Software Engineer from Dell. Second from the left is Phil Burtscher and on the far right is Matt Davis both from Microsoft.

Sony: On the left is Herbert Pang, Program Manager for Sony and on the right is Mina Bush, Software Engineer for Sony.

Fujitsu-Siemens: On the left is Henning Klein, Program Manager for Fujitsu. On the right is Constantine Mitschke-Collande from Microsoft.

[Note: Order of OEM by order in which photos were taken today.]

As GA approaches this fall, it will be exciting to see the awesome OEM products running preinstalled with Windows 7!

Enabling Multi-Touch in the Windows 7 Beta

Brandon LeBlanc — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:06:56 GMT

Now that the Windows 7 Beta has been out for a while, I’d like to highlight how folks can try out Windows Touch, Windows 7’s new multi-touch capabilities.

In order to take advantage of it, you are going to need a PC that supports multiple touch points. Today – there are a few PCs on the market to choose from:

HP TouchSmart All-in-One PCs (IQ500 series & IQ800 series)
HP TouchSmart tx2 Tablet PC
Dell Latitude XT Tablet PC

To enable multi-touch capabilities on these PCs running the Windows 7 Beta you will need to make sure you have the latest multi-touch beta drivers. The driver allows the digitizer screen to support multiple touch points. Remember these are beta drivers, they still need to pass through our rigorous Windows Logo process before they are final, we can’t guarantee that all pre-Windows 7 PCs will have logoed drivers.

For HP TouchSmart All-in-One PCs: The driver is available from Windows Update. After you have installed the Window 7 Beta, open Windows Update from the Start menu. You might have to click the “Check for Updates” link on your left so it will find the driver, it is Optional right now so you’ll have to select it before it will install.
For the Dell Latitude XT and HP TouchSmart tx2 Tablet PCs: the drivers are available now on N-Trig’s website. N-Trig is the company that makes the digitizer in these PCs (you should read the release notes, there are some limitations, like no pen support you should be aware of and how to switch between Windows Vista and Windows 7). Please also note these are beta drivers and are not supported by Dell or HP.

Many features in Windows 7, which are available today in the Windows 7 Beta, take advantage of multi-touch capabilities and I thought I’d highlight a few with some tips here.

To make sure multi-touch is working try our new Paint. The latest version of Paint has some cool new brushes that are designed for multi-touch, click on the Brushes gallery and pick any one (I like the Oil Brush). Now try finger painting – this is also the easy way to see how many fingers your PC supports at the same time, some support two at a time, others support 4 or more.

Once you are done “painting” - try out Internet Explorer 8. The big touch feature here is panning; you can place your finger anywhere on a page and drag up or down to scroll the page – that’s a lot easier than trying to touch the scrollbar. You can also go back and forward between pages with your finger using Flicks: try flicking to your right (as if you were going back in a book) to go back.

You can also use touch to navigate along the taskbar. The new Jump Lists on the taskbar are touch optimized, instead of right-clicking on one of the icons on the taskbar, trying dragging up on it with your finger to literally pull the menu up.

Windows Media Center is also touch optimized. Ben Reed, Senior Product Manager for Windows Media Center, demoed this for Channel 10.

One last tip: To make buttons and controls bigger and easier to touch, you can tell Windows to display everything larger – this has really improved in Windows 7. Go to the Start menu and type display, and then open the Display Control Panel (which should be at the top of the Start menu). Choose the Medium (that’s what I use) or Larger size and you will find that everything is easier to target with your finger.

The Windows 7 Beta Kicks Off This Week

Brandon LeBlanc — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 03:38:11 GMT

I would like to take a moment and share some exciting Windows news being announced tonight by Steve Ballmer during his keynote address in Las Vegas – kicking off the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show.

In October, we revealed the next version of our Windows operating system – Windows 7 - to software developers at PDC2008. And at WinHEC 2008 in early November, we showed Windows 7 to hardware developers. This week at CES marks the first unveiling of Windows 7 to the broad public. Windows 7 is designed with improved navigation and a streamlined UI (including the new enhanced Windows Taskbar) that puts commonly used resources within easy reach. People using Windows 7 will find everyday tasks on their PC are easier and faster. That includes sharing data to all your PCs and devices whether you’re at home or in the office. Windows 7 also builds on the substantial investments we’ve made in the fundamentals in Windows Vista to improve security, reliability and performance.

Tonight we are specifically announcing that Windows 7 has reached a very important milestone in its development cycle: the beta milestone. And starting this week, the Windows 7 Beta will be made available to Windows enthusiasts interested in beta testing – giving people a chance to check out Windows 7 for themselves.

As of tonight, MSDN and TechNet Subscribers will have access to the Windows 7 Beta. Starting January 9th – everyone else will be able to go to the Windows 7 page on Windows.com and download the Windows 7 Beta. The Windows 7 Beta will be available in 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. The Windows 7 Beta will be download-only – we will not be sending physical media out.

More details about downloading and installing the Windows 7 Beta are coming but for now you should check all the resources here – including screenshots, an interactive guide and the press release: www.microsoft.com/CES.

We are very excited for enthusiasts to get their hands on Windows 7 - we can’t wait for people to starting using Windows 7 and letting us know what they think!

And in completing the Windows experience with Windows Live – we are announcing tonight the final release of Windows Live Essentials – which will be available for download at download.live.com. We are also announcing two key partnerships tonight for Windows Live: Facebook and Dell. In the next few months, Facebook users will be able to share activities and updates from Facebook with their Windows Live network. And Dell will be pre-installing Windows Live Essentials on their consumer and small business PCs. Brian Hall, General Manager for Windows Live, has all the details over on the Windows Live Team Blog.

The Live Search Team is also announcing a partnership with Dell where they will distribute Live Search on a majority of consumer and small business PCs beginning in February. Click here for more from the Live Search Team.

In the meantime, if you want to see Windows 7 in action – check out these videos on Windows.com!