One major area of change in Windows 7's interface may not mean much to most PC users: Only a handful of current machines, such as HP's TouchSmart PC and Dell's Latitude XT laptop, support multi¬touch input. But in theory this feature would let you operate a touch-screen-equipped Windows 7 computer as if it were a massive iPhone, using your finger tips to launch applications, shuffie windows around, and enlarge and shrink photos by grabbing them with both hands. Not surprisingly, Microsoft hasn't yet enabled all of this functionality. Using a TouchSmart PC at a Windows 7 reviewers' workshop, we could fingerpaint with two fingers in Paint, but we couldn't perform two-fingered photo manipulations that would be a lot more useful in real life.

Microsoft promises that Windows 7 will ship with more touch features. The company is also working to make the OS smart enough to figure out whether you're using a mouse or your fingers so it can adjust accordingly. For example, if you tap the Start button with your fingertip rather than with the mouse pointer, you'll get a slightly larger Start menu that requires less finesse to navigate. And you don't see a mouse pointer when you touch the screen with your finger-you get a brief puddle effect where you've made screen contact.

Will the touch interface that makes the iPhone cool work on a laptop or desktop system? We're skeptical, but Windows 7 lays the software groundwork that will allow PC manufacturers to give it a try, at least.