Windows 7 has a lot of great features and one of them is called Aero Peek which is built on top of the Windows Vista Aero technology. In Windows 7, the Aero peek is a large improvement in usability compared to Vista and this allow users to take a peek on the various windows that are opened. Users have the ability to focus on the front of the window you choose and the rest of the open windows goes into a transparent nature called “glass sheets”.

The Peek technology also works on the Windows 7 desktop, whenever you move your mouse over the “Show Desktop”, the whole desktop can be seen.

Image from Windows 7.

This should be rocking good, one of the problems I had with my Lenovo S10 is the lack of optical drive and as such I had to borrow an external DVD drive to be able to install Windows 7. While there were a lot of options, like copying the files locally and booting the drive from a USB, the easiest way for me was just to borrow a DVD drive.

Today, Microsoft is contemplating on offering Windows 7 on thumb drive to address the the netbooks target. They have understood the explosion of netbooks and have moved quickly when this market was taking off by extending Windows XP on netbooks. Today, Microsoft continues to give importance to netbooks. By offering Windows 7 on thumb drives, users should be able to install the operating system via thumb drives and there isn’t much need for manufacturers to include optical media to netbooks that would only drive the price.

Are you favorable on this? I am surely looking forward for this.

Image from Windows 7 brochures.

One of the powerful features of Microsoft Windows 7 is it’s touch screen abilities. One of the products that is taking advantage of these features is French portable media company Archos who has released a number of Tablet PC like devices.

Their latest product Archos 9 is a mini PC that would attract a certain market. The Archos is only 0.63 inch thick weighs only 1.8 lbs. The touch screen is an 8.9 inch device which could prove useful and valuable for travelers would wants to be productive but doesn’t like the bulk of PCs including netbooks.

The Archos 9 is expected to be released by the end of October or early November given that Windows 7 is going to be released by October 2.

The Archos 9 is powered by Intel Atom Z515 1.2 GHz and runs with 1GB of DDR2 RAM. It has a built-in Wi-FI (802.11 b/g), Bluetooth 2.1, a 10/100 Ethernet port and two USB 2.0 ports.

I am contemplating on this gadget as it seems more portable than a netbook which I currently have, Lenovo S10.

Image from Archos product brochures.

Today, it is most likely that Microsoft has implemented a code freeze. There might be changes but these are small changes in branding, icons, or anything that is not in the core functionality of the operating system.

This is the time that the packaging department are busy, the marketing doing all the finishing branding touches, the sales department are going through their channels hoping to get their quotas thru pre-sales.

In other words, as far as the developers are concerned, they have done their job and waiting for the release of their redemption operating system.

If you are a decision maker in your company, expect a call from your Microsoft sales account lead.

Image from Microsoft Windows 7.

Previously, Bill Veghte, senior executive of the Microsoft Windows business has noted that there is going to be a modest or slow adoption of Windows 7 upon release.

Is there really going to be a slow adoption of Windows 7? For the consumer market, this might not hold true given that the release of the Windows 7 is close to the holiday season and consumers are going for a shopping spree during this time. Businesses however; would not have Windows in mind and are most probably planning for other areas of their company like Collaboration, Business Intelligence, Business Integration, and stuff.

Contrary to Windows Vista, Microsoft is being low profile on Windows 7 and doesn’t want to blow marketing out of proportion. If Microsoft Windows 7 sells more than their low profile billing then Microsoft can start upping the ante for their operating system.

Image from Microsoft Windows 7.

I got a colleague who seems to have studied all short cut keys there is in Windows. I am amazed how he press the Ctrl keys and some functions execute.

You can exit explorer in Windows Vista right from the Start Menu of the operating system.

Below are the steps to do this.

1. Click on the Windows Vista orb

2. Hover the mouse over a white space in the Vista menu

3. Click Ctrl + Shift key

4. Right click the mouse

The “Exit Explorer” shortcut should appear.

Image from my Windows Vista computer.

Do you want to know what’s the Windows 7 boxes look like? The image below shows the Windows 7 boxes:

The Ultimate version is colored black, the blue color is the Windows 7 professional and the Windows 7 Home Premium is the green color.

These boxes are surely to change and most probably Microsoft is going to have more colors and designs for various seasons and places. If I remember it correctly, before Microsoft had a colored red box for Valentines day somewhere in China.

Image from the web.

The positive remarks of Windows 7 and the announcement by Microsoft about it’s release date on October 22 has people deciding on skipping Windows Vista altogether. While I understand that Microsoft has provided free upgrades for people buying Windows Vista prior to Windows 7 launch, and discounts for people buying Vista by end of June for their upgrades to the latest operating system; consumers are also thinking about the value of time.

It takes time, effort and risk of upgrading to a new operating system and even if the upgrades are going to be free or discounted, I would rather wait a few more months and get the latest operating system.

I installed the last build of Windows 7 prior the RC and have spent hours configuring that operating system. Now, I have to allocate hours for installing the release candidate. It is not easy and time consuming. Given my busy schedule, and I suppose people value their time, it would always be a good idea to minimize the hours and risk and wait for the last version of Windows 7.

How about you? What’s your take on this?

Image from Windows 7.

Dell is looking bad on it’s investors as their earnings have dropped by 63%. Their main earnings come primarily from businesses and government agencies. Their products are not superior as I am really pissed off that the company I am working for with over 260,000 employees is relying heavily on Dell. Their superior customer business model however; attract enterprises and government agencies that buy hundreds of thousands of computers for their operations.

Anyways, given that Windows Vista did not have a powerful and massive effect as that of Windows XP, businesses did not upgrade and so goes the earnings of Dell.

Dell is looking heavily on the success of Windows 7 to power their earnings a new. Microsoft should do well on their operating system because they are not the only company that roots for their success.

Image from Dell.

Windows 7 has a new feature called Windows XP mode which allows running a virtual environment for older versions of the operating system right in the Windows 7 environment. This allow users to run legacy applications and avoid the fearing of using a new operating system and think about their other apps.

The Windows XP mode has bonus for users and this is it’s USB feature. One of the problems I had with the current Microsoft Virtual PC is it’s inability to detect USB drives. This is annoying and Windows 7 should make life for it’s users simpler.

Windows Virtual PC has a pass through feature for devices which makes seamless detection on USB devices.