Thread: Windows 7 History

Windows 7 is an OS which is developed Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft is working under the codename Windows 7 on a successor to Windows Vista since about August 2007. The new operating system based on Windows Vista and comes with a new program features and enhancements in detail. Steve Ballmer talked with the keynote address at the Gartner Symposium IT 2008 to October 16, 2008, Windows 7, that one is Windows Vista, but with numerous improvements. It should be release after 2.5 years of development time as the new Windows major release. The version number has not increased to 7,0 to 6,1, but for compatibility reasons. Due to this Microsoft wants to avoid problems with programs that check the version number. Microsoft introduced Windows 7 first test release of 6801 to build a professional developer conference in Los Angeles on October 28, 2008.

Basic data of Windows 7:
• 64 bit and 32 bit version
• Kernel is based on "MinWin", introduced by Eric Traut in October 2007
• new graphic system
• improved language and handwriting recognition, useable over touch screen
• new user interface
• new program menues, with a recent list of the latests file and program functions used
• Windows XP mode (Windows 7 Professional or higher)

First Windows 7 Release Candidate build 7100 started on April 21, 2009. The operating system can be tested within 30 days without product activation. Microsoft refers to as minimum requirements a computer with 1 GHz processor, 1 GB RAM, 16 GB of free space and DirectX 9 graphics card with the driver WDDM 1.0 or higher. Microsoft is working closely with Intel, that Windows 7 can use Hyper-Threading, even better.

Release Candidate contains the Windows Media Player 12, Internet Explorer 8 and the Defender Windows 6.1. Optional Windows XP Mode (XPM) you can download from Microsoft's site for the test. This ensures to users of Windows 7 and above, to run some old Windows XP Performance applications directly from the Windows 7 Desktop. For this configuration, the virtual image of Windows XP is installed with the Windows Virtual PC. Requirements for hardware virtualization, is a computer with Intel-VT and AMD-V processor. Otherwise, XPM does not start. For fast working are 2 GB of RAM and an additional 15 GB of free space on your hard disk storage recommended.