Windows 7 RC on its way

In Friday's IT Blogwatch, Richi Jennings watches Microsoft announce tweaks to Windows 7 in time for the upcoming Release Candidate build. Not to mention Darth Walkies...

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• Windows 7 vuln. in weakened UAC
• "Seven" shows six segmented SKUs
• Wow, bloggers quite like Windows 7
  

Gregg Keizer reports:

Microsoft Corp. today revealed some of the changes it has made to Windows 7 since it issued a public beta more than a month ago ... did not disclose any new information about a timetable for wrapping up the release candidate (RC), however.
...
Many of the changes are so minor that they may be difficult to spot ... Other modifications, however, should be easy to spot ... developers have squeezed up to 39% more icons on the taskbar before it begins scrolling to show the remainder.

Kevin C. Tofel adds:

Microsoft is offering a list of 36 changes you’ll see in the Release Candidate of Windows 7 ... Here’s an excerpt of the list with some changes I felt worth pointing out:
...
Jumplist suggestions are limited to 10 ... Multi-touch support for the on-screen keyboard (The Shift keys say “huzzah!”) ... Windows Media Player gains .MOV support ... Resuming media playback when waking from sleep.

Preston Gralla offers his five big ones:

Here are the top five changes:

At-Tab integrates with Aero Peek. Aero Peek is one of the niftiest new features of Windows 7 ... It's easier to spot newly installed programs ... UAC improvements. Microsoft continued to tinker with UAC ... Getting your attention ... More taskbar space.

Microsoft's Chaitanya Sareen elaborates:

There are many under the hood changes (bug fixes, compatibility fixes, performance improvements, and improvements) across the entire dev team that we just don’t have room to discuss here, but we thought you’d enjoy a taste of some changes made by three of our feature teams: Core User Experience, Find & Organize and Devices & Media.

But Paul Thurrott gets grumpy:

Microsoft is now so hell bent on proving that it is listening to user feedback ... it must be a pretty impressive list of huge changes, right? I mean, the dangerously deficient default Taskbar view where multiple sub-windows are all hidden under a single obscure icon, thus uncluttering the system while simultaneously making it harder to use, has been changed, right? Right?

Not exactly ... Instead, what we get is a laundry list of tiny changes ... Obviously, any improvements are welcome ... Some of it, however, is silly.

Harry McCracken leaps to Redmond's defense. Kinda:

The post says that it doesn’t cover all the changes since the beta. I’m curious about HomeGroups networking, which isn’t mentioned in the list of revised features–I agree with my friend Scot Finnie that the implementation of the feature in the Windows 7 beta is clunky and unrefined. (Windows gives you a password for your HomeGroup that can’t be changed, and if there’s a way to move a PC from one HomeGroup to another, I haven’t figured it out.)

It does look like Microsoft has locked down Windows 7’s basic feature set: Unless it’s holding back some surprises to spring on us at the last moment ... given that Microsoft historically hasn’t been great at nailing fit-and-finish of new features from the get-go, it’s a relief to see that it’s taking the time to polish up Windows 7.

And finally...

• Walkies! [warning: NSFW-language in comments]

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• Microsoft "recalculating route" of Linux patents
• Apple Safari 4: better, stronger, faster?
• Microsoft: "Just kidding; keep the money"
  

Buffer overflow:

• 4sysops: The risks of skipping Windows Vista
• Stacey Higginbotham: How Neutral Should Wireless Networks Be?
• Bobbie Johnson: Facebook opens up with 'bill of rights'
• Jon Udell: Collaborative curation as a service
• Sindya Bhanoo: Google stays mum on EHR privacy provisions of stimulus bill
• Coding Horror: Who's Your Coding Buddy?
• James Fudge: Is Xbox Live Homophobic?
• Levi Sumagaysay: Blow it all up and start over?

Other Computerworld bloggers:

• Seth Weintraub: CBS's TV.com ushers in TV era for iPhone
• SJVN: Could Microsoft be trying to acquire TomTom?
• Valerie Potter: Do you file your taxes online?
• Preston Gralla: Memo to Microsoft: Avoid Yahoo like the plague
• Seth H. Weintraub: My email to employees re: Gmail outage
• Shark Tank: Gee, thanks
• Shark Bait: Cognitive dissonance

Like this stuff? Subscribe to the RSS feed.

Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 23 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him on Twitter, pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.