RSSLeaks indicate Microsoft is un-rethinking the Win7 taskbar
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published December 8, 2008, 6:59 PM
During last week's touring WinHEC conference in Beijing, attendees were treated to the latest Windows 7 build running in a virtual machine. Trouble is, someone apparently pilfered a copy of the VHD, and now it's loose.
The security around uninstalled copies of Windows 7 is fairly tight. But the security around a copy that has been installed to a PC's virtual machine, might not be tight at all. So an attendee at last week's Beijing WinHEC conference was apparently able to copy the VHD file for the virtual machine to a thumb drive, before uploading it to a Web file host, and providing the link to a very popular Chinese beta news site (not affiliated with BetaNews).
As of late Monday afternoon, East Coast time, the Web host was not serving the file in question, although posters to the news site's forum indicate that many people already downloaded and ran the VHD file successfully. While some bestowed positive comments on the uploader, which translated into English through Google as "hero," other comments we found appeared to accuse him of being an agent of foreign governments seeking to sublimate the Chinese people through the systematic infusion of what clearly translated as something we can't print.
Screenshots attributed to the pilfered VHD include a build number 6951 plus other identifying data, which matches photographs of the verified Windows 7 made during the conference. It could either underscore the veracity of the screenshots, or attest to the acumen of some forger with a lot of time on his hands. We don't expect Microsoft to verify this information, though as soon as tomorrow, developers in Houston should be able to at least see, most likely touch, and possibly take with them, the first official betas of Windows 7.
If the screenshots are indeed valid, then they reveal two very important developments since the last developers' release we saw last October: While Microsoft's design crew have been experimenting with a revised taskbar that has removed the text labels used since Windows 95, the recent screenshots indicate that text may have returned as an option, at least for this build that premiered in Asia. This iteration of the taskbar is actually more familiar and less changed than the ones we've seen before, although text can apparently be turned off. And certain icons previously attributed to the QuickLaunch toolbar (still absent) remain present in the taskbar, interspersed among the running applications. The logic of how they're dispersed has yet to be determined.
Also, in a development that should evoke the comment, "Oh, yeah!" from everyone who thus far has seen it but not noticed it...the Aero windows have semi-transparent borders. Of course, that's a feature that premiered in Windows Vista. But in a virtual machine, semi-transparency doesn't typically work because the virtual video driver in Microsoft's Virtual PC does not enable full DirectX 9 compatibility.
This could indicate either that the screenshots (if valid) were taken on a more sophisticated platform than normal (still possible), or that Build 6951 contains the new feature blogger Long Zheng revealed two weeks ago: a software rendering engine currently called WARP10 that enables graphics made for DirectX 10 to be rendered on cards that could just barely physically support DirectX 9.
Commenters on Zheng's story were wondering if WARP10 would enable high-level graphics rendering, such as that seen in the game Crysis, on virtual machines. Assuming all the "if's" in our story to this point have been checked off, the answer could be yes.
i love the new taskbar, they better not be re-thinking to much!
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|So we think they've re-enable the text option for the taskbar and might possibly have built WARP into Windows 7.
Of course, we're basing this all on screenshots that cannot be verified.
Why don't we all just _wait_ a month when we'll get the Beta 1?
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|"recent screenshots indicate that text may have returned as an option"
It never 'left'...
The option to turn Taskbar 'Text' on, has been in every build of Win7 I have seen since the new TaskBar was added.
This is misleading people to believe that MS is not going ahead with the new taskbar, as other news sites are already reporting and linking to your Article. (Like ActiveWin, etc)
The conclusion they and others are coming to is very wrong about the taskbar, just because you didn't realize 'text' was always an option.
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|"...the Aero windows have semi-transparent borders. Of course, that's a feature that premiered in Windows Vista. But in a virtual machine, semi-transparency doesn't typically work because the virtual video driver in Microsoft's Virtual PC does not enable full DirectX 9 compatibility."
No--this is already available in Vista (and has been since the betas). This is a feature on the client side (RDP client), not the host. The rendering is done on the client (i.e., this requires Vista or higher on the client side), but it is not enabled in the RDP client by default.
This keeps popping up as a new feature of Win7, but it really isn't. There are some other new RDP features in Win7 that are definitely worth talking about, but this isn't one of them.
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|"No--this is already available in Vista (and has been since the betas). This is a feature on the client side (RDP client), not the host. "
This is true, that RDP in Vista supports Aero and uses more vector data for presentation over RDP on XP, etc. RDP on Vista can even do 3D WPF and limited 3D games that go through the Aero composer.
However, it is worth noting that Windows 7 will include a CPU rendering ability for graphics, all the way to at least DX10.
This means that at least in theory, even with a 1998 video card, and no DirectX at all, Win7 could still provide an Aero experience. As well as even run some older DirectX games at reasonable framerates.
Don't expect the latest game to perform well, but on a dual core CPU, there is no reason Win7 shouldn't be able to fully software render games made in the pre-2004 timeframe where you have extra CPU power and cores not being used.
I do not know if MS will do this for the desktop and turn Aero on even for low end video machines, but the odds are good, considering how light the Aero composer is.
PS People stop turning off Aero thinking you are speeding up your computer. If you can run Aero, your computer is FASTER with it turned on 99.9% of the time, and there are concrete technical reasons for this.
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|Win7 better be a home run or Microsoft is done in the OS arena. If the Linux community wasn't a hodge-podge of little tribes or if Macs didn't cost twice what their worth it would already have come to pass.
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|"Win7 better be a home run or Microsoft is done in the OS arena"
LOL yea sure...people have been saying that since win 95a
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|I think most people started saying it after WinME not Win95! Tim S
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|"Win7 better be a home run or Microsoft is done in the OS arena."
ROFL! Seriously you are blind if you really think this. I can assure you Windows is not going anywhere for a LONG time.
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|Microsoft is so entrenched in the fabric of the computer market, they will dominate the OS market until computers no longer require a keyboard and a mouse.
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|Microsoft is done in the OS Arena.
This is the Year of the Linux desktop.
Flying cars will be widely available in ten years.
Ethanol is better for the environment than gas.
These all have something in common: They are the completely fabricated dreams of those who either cannot accept or refuse to acknowledge _reality_.
Microsoft won't disappear; Not in this decade.
Linux as a desktop isn't going to happen. Ever. Sorry to burst your bubbles. It's a _great_ OS, but for servers and workstations, not "desktops".
Flying cars? Right. The FAA can barely keep the comparatively limited number of planes in the air from slamming into each other, you think they'll allow a billion more up there? Even if the tech was cost-feasible?
Ethanol... See how I ended with the joke? It costs more to produce than traditional gasoline, generates more pollutants during it's production than gasoline, and it is far less efficient converting it into energy than gasoline. But hey, it burns cleaner, so who cares right?
Can we be done with these myths, please? It's much easier having a reasoned discussion with someone if they aren't living in fantasy-land...
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|And how long ago was that? yea 13 years , not that long.
Once PC gaming dies which you all are causing by stealing the games there will be no reason to use windows.
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|WARP10 = Larrabee ?
Considering the fact that by the time Windows 7 is released any laptop or desktop should have graphics with DX10+ installed it makes me wonder why the ability to do this via the CPU is so important?
I'm wondering how much influence Intel has on Microsoft in supporting its new Larrabee architecture. After all, they did get Microsoft to alter their specs to support previously unsupported hardware to get the Vista logo (to Microsoft's regret).
There's probably a much simpler answer as to why they are doing this through the CPU.
Anyway, I have a feeling Larrabee is going to sneak up and bite AMD/NVidia in the butt if they aren't careful. Maybe Lucid Logix' "Hydra Engine" will help AMD and NVidia sort out their Crossfire/SLI scaling issues but one thing is absolutely certain and that is 2009 is going to be the year that PC graphics start getting its act together.
I hope that Microsoft can manage to release Windows 7 with less issues than Vista created. New features are cool, Microsoft, but I want reliability and compatibility over added functionality.
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|Oh noes! Someone pilfered a top-secret beta of build 6951 from MS!
Errrmmm, hate to break it to you Scottie. Build 6956 has been on the torrents for days
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|You're absolutely right. I saw build 6956 on Chinese warez site yesterday...
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|ugg...
here is what it indicates, IT IS PRE BETA SOFTWARE!!! things are subject to change, builds will be different, and speculation as to what will be finalized is insane to try and get it down to pin point accuracy. text in the tool bar will be an option, not teh default (as of current, from my sources), WARP10 is only intended to power Aero, not games, but yes it will work (as of the current build) in a virtual machine. of course, to ensure no breach of NDA I am going to add this at the end. Everything I have said is in speculation or provided by other sources, non of this is from my own possible testing and or usase of Windows 7 or any unreleased Microsoft software. that being said, go nutz.
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|Exactly, the RTM of Vista was different from the early betas, i wish the dl manager from the early betas woulda stay'd :(
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