Latest trends in computer technology and gadgets

Windows 7 was formerly codenamed Blackcomb and Vienna is the next release of Microsoft Windows, an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, Tablet PCs, netbooks and media center PCs. Microsoft stated in 2007 they were planning Windows 7 development for a three-year time frame starting after the release of its predecessor, Windows Vista.

Windows 7 designed to be more compatible with device drivers, application and hardware. Microsoft is more
focussed on touch support and windows shell .
Windows 7 was officially announced on January 2009. Beta version of windows 7 can be downloaded from
Microsoft sites.

Windows 7 features :
* It includes speech , touch and handwriting recoginition .
* It supports virtual hard disks .
* Performance improved on multicore processors , boot performance and kernel improvements
* New features added in control panel ClearType Text Tuner, Display Color Calibration Wizard, Gadgets, Recovery, Troubleshooting, Workspaces Center, Location and Other Sensors, Credential Manager, Biometric Devices, System Icons, and Display. Windows Security Center has been renamed to Windows Action Center (Windows Health Center and Windows Solution Center in earlier builds) which encompasses both security and maintenance of the computer.

The taskbar has seen the biggest visual changes, where the Quick Launch toolbar has been replaced with pinning applications to the taskbar. Buttons for pinned applications are integrated with the task buttons. These buttons also enable the Jump Lists feature to allow easy access to common tasks. The revamped taskbar also allows the reordering of taskbar buttons.

Adjacent to the system clock is a small rectangle button for the new feature Peek. Hovering over this button makes all visible windows transparent for a quick look at the desktop. Clicking this button minimizes all windows.

Windows 7 for Developers includes a new networking API with support for building SOAP based web services in native code (as opposed to .NET based WCF web services), new features to shorten application install times, reduced UAC prompts, simplified development of installation packages, and improved globalization support through a new Extended Linguistic Services API.

At WinHEC 2008 Microsoft announced that color depths of 30-bit and 48-bit would be supported in Windows 7 along with the wide color gamut scRGB (which for HDMI 1.3 can be converted and output as xvYCC). The video modes supported in Windows 7 are 16-bit sRGB, 24-bit sRGB, 30-bit sRGB, 30-bit with extended color gamut sRGB, and 48-bit scRGB.Microsoft is also investigating better support for Solid State Drives and Windows 7 will be able to identify a Solid State Drive uniquely.
Online versions of Spades, Backgammon and Checkers

Windows 7 will include Internet Explorer 8 and Windows Media Player 12.

To install windows 7 Minimum Hardware requirement

* 1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor
* 1 GB of system memory
* 16 GB of available disk space
* Support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128 MB memory (in order to enable Aero theme)
* DVD-R/W Drive
* Internet access (to download the Beta and get updates)

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