RSSTop 10 Windows 7 Features #2: Device Stage
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published May 29, 2009, 5:06 PM
If the strange feeling that Vista was less secure than XP was topmost on critics' gripe lists over the last three years -- regardless of the facts which contra-indicate that feeling -- running a close second was the feeling that very little, if anything, outside of the PC worked with Vista when you plugged it in.
Here, the facts aren't all there to compensate for the feeling. Even in recent months, Palm Centro users complained about the lack of a Vista driver for connecting Centro to the PC outside of a very slow Bluetooth; Minolta scanner users were advised to hack their own .INF files with Notepad in order to get Vista to recognize their brands; and Canon digital camera owners are being told by that company's tech support staff that Microsoft was supposed to make the Vista drivers for their cameras, but didn't.
What's going on here? Certainly, Microsoft shouldn't be responsible for producing drivers for every little thing that could fit the other side of a USB cable. On the other hand, if device manufacturers haven't reached that same conclusion, whose fault was it that they weren't steered in the right direction back while Vista was in beta?
With Windows 7, Microsoft is making a concerted and earnest effort to avoid enabling a repeat performance. Its gamble is that Windows 7 can create an avenue, for the first time, for manufacturers of printers, cameras, smartphones, music players, and other devices to build completely customized extensions of the desktop. The inspiration was an idea presented internally by Microsoft engineers in prototype form a few years ago: You plug in a smartphone, and it appears on your desktop.
That idea evolved somewhat into what Microsoft calls the Device Stage, with the notion that once you plug in a recognized device, something bigger and better than just an icon represents it on your Windows 7 desktop. You plug in your phone, and boom, there it is -- not the brand name of the manufacturer, but a real picture of the phone. (3D renderings of the device were considered as an option, I'm told.) From there, the device manufacturer is free to present a completely customized operations and management interface specifically geared around the device. Think of it like the device's "home page" -- it opens up, and you see clearly stated or rendered links to the things the device can do.
Since the Windows 7 taskbar itself has changed since that initial prototype was presented, the concept has evolved a bit, and in a sense simplified. Now when you plug in a recognized device, an icon for it does appear in the new taskbar, and it can be "pinned" there just like an application. Hovering over it brings up a frame that can serve as a status report for the device -- for instance, registering the battery level for a phone or a camera, or showing how many songs are loaded in an MP3 player and how many minutes or megabytes remain.
Up to now, providing such a customized view of a plugged-in device's capabilities required the manufacturer to be willing to write the software pretty much from scratch, and then have that software behave nicely with its own device driver. Microsoft still needs its supporting device manufacturers to make some effort, but this time, it's using Web-oriented technologies to at least try to ease their burden.
What Microsoft is hoping manufacturers will embrace is a concept called the Device Stage metadata package. It's an XML-based file that represents all the visual elements that the user sees when he plugs in a device (or when Bluetooth captures it), and all the software components related to the functions that device performs, in an explicit database. Conceivably, that software can be installed automatically through the Internet as the device is plugged in (or comes in range), since the metadata package will contain instructions for how Win7 retrieves it, and how it should be registered locally.
The metadata also links to pictures and other assets supplied by the manufacturer, so the user doesn't see the driver as something that "belongs" to Microsoft -- which may end up helping Microsoft just as well as the manufacturer.
The big goal there is to eliminate the need for the user to run a CD-ROM driver setup routine before Windows ever comes within a hundred feet of the device -- today, users who have opened boxes to find "Do Not Do Anything Else Until You Install This Software" warnings, are literally scared to trust Vista afterward. But there's a bonus which Microsoft is fully aware of but doesn't talk much about lest it cast a jinx: The fewer CD-ROM setup routines a user has to install, the less opportunities there are for installing bloatware and useless software that clogs up the operating system, that befuddles users with unwanted advertising, and that makes users blame Windows for their frustration. Device Stage metadata is only for providing device functionality, nothing more.
Next: Rendering the Control Panel obsolete…
It'll take a year or two for new devices to intelligently+effectively take advantage of this cool feature. This idea of consistent UI and having a nice icon + quick links for device management in DEVICE MANAGER and TASKBAR will surely be enough reasons for CUSTOMERS to like the feature which will make MANUFACTURERS embrace it.
And the nice thing about it is that most likely individuals (corp admins, geeks etc) will be able to hack sexy installs for their common (unsupported by manuf) devices. I know for sure I'd make nice device manager icons and taskbar device management for my devices if it only takes 30mins or so each and it'll make life easier for MY USERS.... XML sounds simple enough... Probably people will start sharing those unsupported sexy-device-installs on the web...for older equipment. It makes perfect sense hence it WILL happen.
WinXP is still my fav OS though. ;) No gimmicks - 100% hardware and software compatibility. Likewise, Win7 will probably be my fav OS only 3-5yrs after its release... ;)
Score: 1
|Meh...
Not something I think I would ever use. Could work...but it depends on how much "extra" device manufacturers want to provide, and they have not had a good score on that front in a *long* time...
As an aside:
I *really* wish I could set the "Windows Defender" updates to be automatic. I don't want to disable it, but I also do not want to set them *all* to install without my input. MSFT needs to allow us to select the "common" updates that should automatically install even if we have the general setting to "download, but notify". I also can't seem to use the same regedit hack to make the drive letters appear first in Win7 that I was able to use in XP. ...and of course, the toolbar thing. Grrr...
Anyone know of a free app that'll let you dock shortcuts to the side of the screen (small icons with text)? I need to be able to fit about 30 different icons in it.
Score: 0
|Device Stage is a great idea. Basically, it's a consistent UI to do all possible tasks with a device. Most newbies have no idea what to do when their device is plugged in, especially portable devices. I think MS got the "idea" from their Media Transfer Protocol device UI (PlaysForSure) which used the shell namespace to achieve a similar experience.
Score: 0
|not sure it will be a viable feature.
it will likely be useful only for those third party devices that are highly popular and are friendly with microsoft corporation.
otherwise, hardware makers will be unlikely to provide microsoft with the ability to install their proprietary drivers.
does anyone remember the time when microsoft wanted the manufacturers of drivers to send have microsoft test and certify them "and" for a cost?
didn't do too well.
Score: -2
|Yea Ben...why would manufacturers want to utilize something that will make their devices more attractive to at leas 80% of the market.
Give it a rest, you're sounding more pathetic with every post.
"otherwise, hardware makers will be unlikely to provide microsoft with the ability to install their proprietary drivers."
You either just stopped making sense, or you just do not have the capacity to understand how this works...
Score: 2
|your arguments are just "whine".
manufacturers will "continue" to provide "thier" drivers for "thier" products via "thier" website.
because you are mentally under priviledge, i will provide you with "one" of the reasons why.
manufacturers "want" people, especially their customers to visit their websites and not microsofts.
in conclusion, the market place won't allow microsoft to hold all the cards. microsoft only needs to worry about microsoft products as far as the rest of the world is concerned.
Score: -2
|"manufacturers "want" people, especially their customers to visit their websites and not microsofts."
Yet again you utterly fail to understand the capabilities of the feature you are discussing. We'd all be shocked, but it's a habit of yours we've become accustomed to...
FYI: The information displayed in the "Device Stage" can come 100% from the manufacturer and can (and most likely would) include LINKS to THEIR sites and functionality through THEIR software using THEIR drivers.
Funny how you're the one whining about something you know nothing about and the moment someone tries to correct your BS, suddenly THEY are the "whine"ers. Oh, wait....that's not funny, that's your SOP. You troll and then call everyone else the trolls. (How utterly typical...)
Awaiting the typical response ... (personal attacks, off-topic BS, "clever for a 3rd-grader" tirades...anything but an actual defense of your arguments (Can't defend BS, right?)
Score: 2
|@pitifulctroll
quite simply your an utter moron.
"The information displayed in the "Device Stage" can come 100% from the manufacturer and can (and most likely would) include LINKS to THEIR sites and functionality through THEIR software using THEIR drivers."
obviously you have no understanding of the history between microsoft and hardware manufacturers.
your grunt quoted above "will" never happen.
Score: -1
|*LAUGHING MY a** OFF*
Did I call it, or what?
It's cute, really. How incapable you are of having in intelligent discussion...
All drivers used in Windows are direct from the Manufacturer. MSFT writes none of their own...not even the one's for "MSFT" branded hardware.
Score: 0
|of course you are "laughing your face off"
"All drivers used in Windows are direct from the Manufacturer"
frankly, people know that microsoft doesn't make hard ware drivers, unless it is for their own microsoft brand products.
therefore, you are wrong that "all" drivers are made by everyone except microsoft.
unfortunately, you simply can't comprehend the issue at hand and just trolling.
"we" would ask you to "just shut up". but you don't comprehend as to how or why as well. if you did, then you would really have no purpose.
Score: -2
|"frankly, people know that microsoft doesn't make hard ware drivers, unless it is for their own microsoft brand products.
therefore, you are wrong that "all" drivers are made by everyone except microsoft."
So because Microsoft doesn't make drivers, it is incorrect that the manufacturers make the drivers?
Wow...you *are* dumber than I thought...aside from you utter inability to do anything but restate your initial argument with apparently no intention of providing and reason behind it (you and reason...right) you aren't even making sense anymore.
Congratulations. You have exceeded my expectations! I honestly didn't think your comments could get less intelligent than they already were.
Score: 0
|I have Windows 7RC loaded, why have I not seen this?
Score: 0
|It's there...if you go to devices and printers you'll see it. Not many (if any at all) manufacturers have this enabled on their devices yet since Windows 7 is still just in RC though...
Score: 0
|I like this feature.
Score: 0
|Good analysis!
Score: 0
|