Microsoft Windows 7 is here!

The wait is finally over!

Just moments ago, Microsoft Windows 7 made it to North American shores at around midnight EDT.

Windows 7 is the latest release of the Windows operating system and it comes less than three years after the release of its predecessor, Windows Vista. Windows 7 was slated to arrive in January 2010, but back on May, the software giant stated that the operating system would arrive in time for the crucial holiday shopping season. The server counter part of Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 Release 2 (R2) has also been released. More about Windows Server 2008 R2 in my next news article momentarily.

Windows 7 (formerly codenamed Blackcomb and Vienna) was released to manufacturing (RTM) on the 22nd of July 2009 with the current version of 6.1 build 7600.16385.090713-1255. The final RTM build was completed on the 13th of July 2009 after passing all of Microsoft's internal tests. For more information on the development of Windows 7, read this Wikipedia article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developm…

Unlike its predecessor, which introduced a large number of new features, Windows 7 is intended to be a more focused, incremental Windows upgrade with the goal of being full compatible with applications and hardware which Windows Vista is already compatible with. Windows 7 includes multi-touch support, a redesigned Windows Shell with a new taskbar, a home networking system called HomeGroup and many other performance improvements.

Earlier today, the operating system was released by the company around the world in Asia and Europe with New Zealand being the first country to have Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 on its store shelves, due to its timezone.

In Auckland, New Zealand's Queen Elizabeth Square, the All Blacks rugby star Richie McCaw was the first person to receive a Hewlett-Packard dv7 notebook computer which has Windows 7 preinstalled. The new notebook PC is worth NZ$2,999 ($2,271) and is currently being auctioned on TradeMe, with proceeds going to Lifeline.

Main Features

Unlike its predecessor, Windows 7 includes a number of new features, such as advances in touch and handwriting recognition, improved support for virtual hard disks, performance on multi-core processors and boot performance, DirectAccess and major kernel improvements. Windows 7 retains the Windows Aero user interface and visual style that was first introduced with Windows Vista, its predecessor, but many areas have seen enhancements.

Here's a complete run down on what's included in Windows 7:

Desktop Improvements - One of the major features to the Windows desktop includes the retooled taskbar. It has served as the go-to spot for launching programmes and switching windows since it was first introduced in Windows 95 more than 14 years ago. Windows 7 taskbar improvements include thumbnail previews of webpages, documents and even running video. The popular mini-app first introduced in Windows Vista called Gadgets are now more flexible and fun. The Sidebar is now done away with so now gadgets can be placed anywhere on the desktop.

If you are overwhelmed by open windows, Windows 7 includes three simple yet powerful new features called Aero Peek, Aero Shake and Snap that will help you clear through the desktop clutter.

Also new to Windows 7 include Jump Lists, it'll take you right to documents, pictures, songs or websites that you access in everyday life. To open a Jump List, right-click a programme icon on the Windows 7 taskbar. It can also be found in the Start menu. The Jump List for Internet Explorer 8 shows frequently-viewed websites while Windows Media Player 12 lists commonly played tunes. More about Windows Media Player 12 in a moment. Networking Improvements - One of the major networking enhancements include a new ways to manage networking. With HomeGroup, you can connect two or more PCs running Windows 7. HomeGroup makes it so much easier to automatically start sharing your music, pictures, videos and document libraries with others in your home. The new "Share with" menu will provide a quicker way to share individual files. HomeGroup is password-protected and will put you in total control if you feel concerned about your privacy. You can also decide what gets shared and what stays private. You can also make your files "read only", so other people can look at it, but not touch your files.

Also with Windows 7, it is now much easier to connect to networks on your laptop wherever you go. With the View Available Networks feature, it displays all your wireless and wired options including Wi-Fi, mobile broadband, dial-up or a corporate VPN. To access the feature, just click the network icon on the taskbar. Performance Improvements - Windows 7 is designed to be much leaner and less busy with background services only when you need them. Such improvements include sleep, the search features, USB devices and lesser memory usage!

Windows 7 is designed to sleep, resume and reconnect your wireless network more quickly. Plus, the search feature popus up faster; sorting and grouping of search results is also significantly quicker too! Windows 7 can have your portable flash drive or other USB device ready for you in just seconds and the wait is even shorter if you used it before. Windows 7 is also less memory hungry that Windows Vista, making it a big improvement in overall performance!

Windows 7 also has better Power Management that will help your battery last longer! Windows 7 runs with fewer background activities so your PC processor doesn't work as hard and that it will draw less power. Less power-hungry DVD playback, automatic screen dimming, powering off unused ports and a more accurate battery-life indicator are one of the other innovations that Windows 7 includes to help maintain your power management on your laptop. Full 64-bit Support - Windows 7 has improved support for 64-bit processors as well as software and hardware associated with it. If you have gone shopping for a new computer, more and more PCs have 64-bit processors and you'll know what the advantages that they can offer.

A 64-bit PC can handle larger amounts of information than a 32-bit PC. 64-bit PCs can be more responsive when you're running lots of programmes at once as the can be capable of using 4 GB or more memory. All packaged editions of Windows 7 (except for Windows 7 Starter) include both 32-bit and 64-bit software. Unlike Windows XP Professional x64 Edition and all 64-bit versions of Windows Vista (in which it can only handle up to 128 GB of memory), 64-bit versions of Windows 7 can handle up to 192 GB of memory! Windows Media Player 12 - You can now play more music and video than ever before - including unprotected songs from your iTunes library! With Windows Media Player 12, the media player will only more popular audio and video formats, including new support for 3GP, AAC, AVCHD, DivX, MOV and XVid!

Windows Media Player 12 also has the new Play To feature that streams music and video to other PCs running Windows 7 and compatible devices around the home such as the Linksys DMP100 or the XBox 360. You can even stream your music library over the internet from one PC to another!

The media player also has the new Now Playing mode. It is a study in minimalism and only shows you the controls you need, so nothing comes between you and your music or video. A new taskbar thumbnail with playback controls makes previewing easier and fun!

For starts, you can enjoy smarter DVD playback, 15-second song previews and Jump Lists for fast access to favourite media as mentioned earlier in this article. Other features - Unlike the blank start-up screen with the lime green progress bar in Windows Vista, the most interesting feature is that Windows 7's start-up screen consists of a animation featuring four coloured light balls (one red on the upper left, one green on the upper right, one blue on the bottom left and one yellow on the bottom right). The light balls twirl around for a few seconds and then join together to form a glowing Windows logo. This can only happen on displays with a vertical resolution of 768 pixels or height as the animation is 1024x768. Any screen with a resolution below will only display the same startup screen that Windows Vista is currently using. Such examples include 800x480 and 1024x600 displays on netbooks.

Other improvements include the redesign of the Calculator application, the Ribbon UI interface for Paint and WordPad, several additional new items to the Control Panel and numerous new features and improvements to the Resource Monitor. Several other key features to Windows 7 include DirectX 11, Windows Media Center, Windows Search, the Windows Gadget Platform, Windows Live Essentials, Windows XP Mode and Virtual Hard Disk support.

Users will be able to disable many Windows components that was possible in Windows Vista, including Internet Explorer 8, Windows Media Player 12, Windows Media Center, Windows Search and the Windows Gadget Platform.

For the all the rest of newest, improved and removed features, please read the following Wikipedia articles: Features new to Windows 7 and Features removed from Windows 7.

Pricing, Availability and Overview of Windows 7 Editions

As mentioned in this news article earlier this year, pricing for three of the six editions of Windows 7 were announced on Wednesday, the 24th of June. The products will be made available through retail channels and will ship in all six editions. The editions (with the exception of Windows 7 Starter Edition) will be shipped in both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) architectures. Prices in parenthesis indicate the full retail or OEM price. Here's a complete rundown:

Windows 7 Starter Edition is the lowest cost and least featured version of Windows 7 as the Windows Aero theme is not included. Windows 7 can run a unlimited number of applications, compared to only 3 in Windows XP Starter Edition and Windows Vista Starter Edition. The software giant previously intended to ship Windows 7 Starter Edition with this limitation, but the limitation was removed in the final release. Windows 7 Starter Edition will only be available preinstalled on computers through system integrators or computer manufactures. Windows 7 Starter Edition will only be available in 32-bit version. Windows 7 Start Edition will also be the last edition of a Windows product that will be made 32-bit due to memory constraints. Windows 7 Starter Edition is also sold in emerging markets. Windows 7 Home Basic is a second-to-lowest cost version of Windows 7 Home Premium and unlike Windows Vista Home Basic, it will only be available to emerging markets such as Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Russia, Thailand and Turkey. Some of Windows Aero's options are not supported along with several new features. The 64-bit edition of Windows 7 Home Basic will support up to 8 GB of physical memory.

Since Microsoft prohibits the sale of Windows 7 Home Basic outside of emerging markets, neither Windows XP Home Edition nor Windows Vista Home Basic can be directly upgraded from it; a clean installation of Windows 7 Home Premium must be performed instead. Windows 7 Home Premium contains features that are targeted at the home market segment, such as Windows Media Center, Windows Aero and touch-screen controls. The 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium will support up to 16 GB of physical memory. The pricing for the Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade is $119 while the full retail and full version of the product will run at $199. The OEM pricing for Windows 7 Home Premium will run at $99.99. Windows 7 Professional is targeted towards enthusiasts, small and medium-sized business users. Windows 7 Professional includes all of the features of Windows 7 Home Premium and adds the ability to participate in a Windows Server domain. Additional features include operating as a Remote Desktop server, location aware printing, Encrypting File System, Presentation Mode and Windows XP Mode as mentioned earlier in this news article. The 64-bit version of Windows 7 Professional will support up to 192 GB of physical memory. The pricing for the Windows 7 Professional upgrade is $199 while the full retail version of the product will run at $299. The OEM pricing for Windows 7 Professional will run at $134.99. Windows 7 Enterprise targets the enterprise segment of the market and will only be sold through volume licensing to companies which have a Software Assurance contract with Microsoft. Additional features include support for Multilingual User Interface (MUI) packages, BitLocker Drive Encryption and UNIX application support. Windows 7 Enterprise includes Software Assurance only benefits, including a license allowing the running of multiple virtual machines and activation via a Volume License Key. The 64-bit version of Windows 7 Enterprise will also support up to 192 GB of physical memory. Windows 7 Ultimate contains all of the features in any of the five other editions of Windows 7, including Windows 7 Enterprise, but unlike that edition, it will be available to home users on an individual license basis. With the Windows Anytime Upgrade service, users of Windows 7 Starter through Windows 7 Professional will be able to upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate for a fee if they wish to do so. Unlike Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows 7 Enterprise will not include the Windows Ultimate Extras feature or any exclusive features. Like Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Enterprise, the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Ultimate will too support up to 192 GB of physical memory. Pricing for the Windows 7 Ultimate upgrade will be at $219 while the full retail version of the product will run at $319. The OEM pricing for Windows 7 Ultimate will run at $174.99.

Hardware Requirements

To upgrade or install Windows 7, you must meet the following hardware requirements:

A 1 GHz 32-bit or a 64-bit processor. 1 GB of memory minimum for a 32-bit version of Windows 7, 2 GB minimum for a 64-bit processor. Windows 7 can address up to 192 GB of memory. A DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM driver model 1.0. A 1 GHz 32-bit (Pentium III or Celeron) or a 64-bit processor. 16 GB of available disk space minimum for a 32-bit installation of Windows 7. 20 GB of available disk space for a 64-bit installation of Windows 7. A DVD-ROM drive (only to install from DVD/CD media). A Super VGA or higher resolution monitor capable of display at least 800 x 600 pixels or better with a keyboard and a Microsoft-compatible pointing device.

For more information on additional system requirements to use certain features of Windows 7, go to the Windows 7 System Requirements page.

Upgrade Eligibility

Windows Vista Home Premium (or better) can be upgraded to Windows 7 with an in-place upgrade if the processor architecture, comparable editions and language versions are the same. Windows XP users can only upgrade via a clean (or custom) installation.

Even if Windows 2000 Professional still remains a supported operating system, Microsoft has dropped the upgrade path to Windows 7, because the aging operating system is reaching the end of the Extended Support phase next year. Windows 2000 users must buy a full Windows 7 license.

The reasoning of upgrading from Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista has not been made clear and Microsoft recommends a clean installation regardless of it.

According to this Tom's Hardware article, a typical upgrade to Windows 7 will take anywhere from 45 minutes to as much as over 20 hours.

Lifecycle Support Policy

Mainstream Support for Windows 7 will retire on 13 January 2015 and Extended Support will end five years after Mainstream Support ends, which will be on 14 January 2020. This applies to all editions of Windows 7. The Windows Automated Installation Kit for Windows 7 will be the only product that will not have Extended Support.

Microsoft will retire support for Windows Vista RTM on 13 April 2010 and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 on 12 July 2011 after which the software giant will no longer offer incident support options or security updates once support for these service packs are retired. On 30 January 2011, Microsoft will stop selling Windows Vista to OEMs channels, system builders, volume licenses and terminate retail sales of the product.

Mainstream Support for Windows Vista will retire on 10 April 2012 and Extended Support will end on 11 April 2017. Support for Windows Vista Starter, Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate will not be extended and the consumer products will no longer be publicly supported after this date. Extended Support for Windows Vista's predecessor, Windows XP does not end until 8 April 2014 while Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows 2000 (all editions) will still be supported until 13 July 2010.

With the exception of Windows XP, the company has clearly stated that Extended Support is not available for consumer, hardware and multimedia products.

The Last 32-bit Operating System

Just like Microsoft Windows Millenium Edition, being the last version of Windows to be based on MS-DOS, Windows 7 will be the last version of Windows to support 32-bit processors and memory requirements are becoming too enormous and memory prices by the gigabyte still being expensive.

The successor to Windows 7 will support 64-bit processors only.

Questions and Comments

Should you have any concerns or questions in regards to the release of Microsoft Windows 7, you are welcomed to post your thoughts.

Microsoft Windows 7 Official Website