Lucky number seven?
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer kicked off this year's CES (consumer electronics show) by announcing the earlier than expected launch of the public beta of Windows 7 (W7) - the successor to Vista.
Vista has been a much maligned operating system in its two years of existence, but the W7 could be arriving just as people are warming to Vista. This might not be such a bad thing, however, as W7 is based on Vista anyway.
For some reason Microsoft is delaying public access to the beta for a day - maybe to give us journos a head start - and you'll be able to download it on Friday at www.Microsoft.com/windows7.
Among the new features Microsoft seems most excited about are:
- Home Group - all W7 PCs on a home network instantly recognise each other.
- Device Stage - a set of systems and APIs that allow peripheral and external device manufacturers to develop bespoke experiences within the OS for their products.
- OS-level support for touch-screen, including the user-interface.
There were also a couple of announcements concerning the new Windows Live Essentials free web services package, which can be downloaded at http://download.live.com.
The first is that Microsoft has struck a deal with Facebook to allow sharing of content between it and Windows Live and the other is that, from now on, all Dell PCs will come with Windows Live Essentials pre-installed.