SuperSite Blog : Book: Windows 7 Secrets

See You in New York!

pthurrott — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:13:43 GMT

I'm heading to New York City today for the Windows 7 launch. If you're going to be in town, and are 21 or over, please do stop by the Windows 7 launch party I'm co-hosting with Ed Bott, Mary Jo Foley, and Tom Warren. Others you may know from the Windows community will be there as well, including my Windows 7 Secrets co-author Rafael Rivera. Raf and I will be signing copies of the book to give away, and we'll all be giving away copies of Windows 7 and some other Windows-related goodies as well, of course.

Come to the party!

Where: Antarctica
When: October 22 at 5:30 pm
Who: Ed, Mary Jo, Paul & Tom
Who's invited: Everyone

See you in New York!

Inside the Touch Pack for Windows 7: Lagoon

pthurrott — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:40:32 GMT

Rafael provides some details about the Touch Pack for Windows 7, which I alluded to in my recent Windows Touch article (because, at the time, we weren't allowed to discuss this publicly).

This afternoon, Microsoft revealed the new Touch Pack for Windows 7 featuring six new touch-enabled applications (toys) to be installed on touch-supported hardware (at the OEM's discretion of course). While all the toys are nice, the first to catch my eye was the photo-realistic fishy Microsoft Surface Lagoon screensaver. It features a photo realistic set of images put together to form a vivid 3D environment for the fishies to swim around and enjoy. Touching the display while the screensaver is going results in ripple formation – consistent with a finger being inserted in the water (i tested in my real aquarium) – and even draws the fish near while keeping your finger dry. Very nice!

Rafael and I wrote about the Touch Pack for Windows 7 Secrets but it's nice to be able to discuss it publicly now. I'll add info about this to my upcoming Windows Touch feature focus article. Stay tuned.

Windows 7: Elegant, yes. But too many tiny inconsistencies

pthurrott — Sat, 09 May 2009 15:55:38 GMT

In documenting Windows 7 for Windows 7 Secrets and, of course, for this site, I've come across hundreds of tiny inconsistencies that I feel may damage the reputation of quality that Microsoft is trying to establish with this release. Hopefully, these are the things that Microsoft will fix between now and RTM, but I have a feeling they won't get them all. There are just so many.

I'll highlight an obvious one here.

Homegroup ... Or is it HomeGroup?

Microsoft refers to its HomeGroup sharing feature in two different ways, as Homegroup and HomeGroup. This is annoying, but never more so than when the spelling difference both appear in the same UI. If you bring up the HomeGroup control panel, you'll see that it is referred to as HomeGroup in the address bar, and in the final link on the window, called the Start the HomeGroup troubleshooter. But in five other locations in this same window, it is referred to as Homegroup.

Doy.

By the way, capitalization is hugely inconsistent throughout Windows 7. It's clear that Microsoft is trying to be consistent, so when menu items would previously read like "New ... Bitmap Image" in Windows Vista, they now read as "New ... Bitmap image" in Windows 7. But they've missed a bunch of them.

Also ... I wrote previously about inconsistencies in the new enhanced taskbar, of course. When you right-click different items from left to right, you see the following:

Start button: Standard windows context menu

Taskbar button: Jump List with glass border

Taskbar: Standard windows context menu

Standard tray items: Standard windows context menu

Aero Peek: Standard windows context menu

Doesn't look so bad, right? I mean, only one item--Taskbar buttons--has unique behavior. There's just one problem with this theory. When you left-click any standard tray item (Action Center, Network, Sound, Clock), you get a Jump List-like window with a glass border. Seriously, Microsoft. Get it straight.

Anyway, I don't mention this to cast a shadow over all the good stuff in Windows 7. But in writing about this a lot, these things just stick out. And they form, I believe, what could be a quality wall between what Microsoft hopes to achieve and what it will achieve. Many of these issues can and should be fixed. For heavens sake, figure out HomeGroup/Homegroup at least, Microsoft.