Windows 7 (formerly codenamed Blackcomb and Vienna) is the latest version of Microsoft Windows, a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs and media center PCs. Windows 7 was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, with general retail availability set for October 22, 2009, less than three years after the release of its predecessor, Windows Vista. Windows 7's server counterpart, Windows Server 2008 R2, is slated for release at about the same time.
Unlike its predecessor, which introduced a large number of new features,
Windows 7 is intended to be a more focused, incremental upgrade to the
Windows line, with the goal of being fully compatible with applications
and hardware with which Windows Vista is already compatible. Presentations given by the company in 2008 focused on multi-touch support, a redesigned Windows Shell with a new taskbar, a home networking system called HomeGroup, and performance improvements. Some applications that have been included with prior releases of Microsoft Windows, including Windows Calendar, Windows Mail, Windows Movie Maker, and Windows Photo Gallery, will not be included in Windows 7; some will instead be offered separately as part of the free Windows Live Essentials suite.
Originally, a version of Windows codenamed Blackcomb was planned as the successor to Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.
Major features were planned for Blackcomb, including an emphasis on
searching and querying data and an advanced storage system named WinFS
to enable such scenarios. However, an interim, minor release, codenamed
"Longhorn" was announced for 2003, delaying the development of
Blackcomb.
By the middle of 2003, however, Longhorn had acquired some of the
features originally intended for Blackcomb. After three major viruses
exploited flaws in Windows operating systems within a short time period
in 2003, Microsoft changed its development priorities, putting some of
Longhorn's major development work on hold while developing new service
packs for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Development of Longhorn (Windows Vista) was also "reset," or delayed, in August 2004. A number of features were cut from Longhorn.
Blackcomb was renamed Vienna in early 2006, and again to Windows 7 in 2007. In 2008, it was announced that Windows 7 would also be the official name of the operating system.
The first external release to select Microsoft partners came in January 2008 with Milestone 1, build 6519. At PDC 2008, Microsoft demonstrated Windows 7 with its reworked taskbar. Copies of Windows 7 build 6801 were distributed out at the end of the conference, but the demonstrated taskbar was disabled in this build.
On December 27, 2008, Windows 7 Beta was leaked onto the Internet via BitTorrent. According to a performance test by ZDNet,
Windows 7 Beta beat both Windows XP and Vista in several key areas,
including boot and shut down time and working with files, such as
loading documents. Other areas did not beat XP, including PC Pro
benchmarks for typical office activities and video editing, which
remain identical to Vista and slower than XP. On January 7, 2009, the 64-bit version of the Windows 7 Beta (build 7000) was leaked onto the web, with some torrents being infected with a trojan. At CES 2009, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
announced the Windows 7 Beta, build 7000, had been made available for
download to MSDN and TechNet subscribers in the format of an ISO image.
The Beta was to be publicly released January 9, 2009 and Microsoft
initially planned for the download to be made available to 2.5 million
people on this date. However, access to the downloads was delayed due
to high traffic.
The download limit was also extended, initially until January 24, then
again to February 10. People who did not complete downloading the beta
had two extra days to complete the download. After February 12,
unfinished downloads became unable to complete. Users could still
obtain product keys from Microsoft to activate their copy of Windows 7
Beta which expired on August 1, 2009. The release candidate, build
7100, has been available for MSDN and TechNet subscribers and Connect
Program participants since April 30 and became available to the general
public on May 5, 2009. It has also been leaked onto the Internet via BitTorrent.
The release candidate is available in five languages and will expire on
June 1, 2010, with shutdowns every two hours starting March 1, 2010.
Microsoft has stated that Windows 7 will be released to the general
public on October 22, 2009. Microsoft released Windows 7 to MSDN and
Technet subscribers on August 6, 2009 at 10:00am PDT. Microsoft announced that Windows 7, along with Windows Server 2008 R2 were released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009. Windows 7 RTM
is build 7600.16385 which was compiled on July 13, 2009, and was
declared the final RTM build after passing all Microsoft's tests
internally.
