Microsoft outs educational, inspirational Windows 7 tour videos
By Laura June 
posted June 30th 2009 9:44AM
posted June 30th 2009 9:44AM
[Thanks, Alex -- via Neowin]
posted June 30th 2009 9:44AM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
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let me rephrase that: W7 is coming out pretty soon, a short delay in the OS update.
Hey Gjunkie, yeah you! Your blog sucks! Hahah!
I think we can all agree even though I'm biased towards Engadget that your blog is a failure.
I think she's good looking and have no problem with her attire.
Correction. Get back in MY kitchen and take those shoes off. I think I forgot something.
Windows 7 - it IS good. Most of you haven't got a clue.
Enjoyed the video, especially her closing comments - "get things done quicker, easier and faster".
Um. Sorry?
I do find it hilarious that the first thing they show is a copy of Apple's Spotlight that we've had for years in OS X. Although I have to say it appears their implementation of how to access this leftover bit from WinFS is at least as good as Spotlight in terms of how to invoke it. Very nice.
And every other feature is simply things we've taken for granted in OS X for several years. Very cool, and smart things to copy.
The one thing that I found to be hilariously awkward, though, is dragging and dropping media and right clicking to send it to the Media Center on another PC to be played over a specific set of speakers. That was not intuitive and was not implemented very well at all. Would it not be better to just select them, and right click and select the source to play to? Why drag/right click/select? That's an extra step not necessary, and the absolute worst implementation of drag-and-drop I have yet to encounter.
Windows Search (formerly known as Windows Desktop Search) was introduced in 2004, if memory serves me correctly, a little bit before Google Desktop. Spotlight was introduced in Tiger, which was released in 2005. Now last I checked, 2004 was before 2005, although I understand: dates can be so confusing.
Also, it's a rehash of the Windows Indexing Service, which has been around for at least 15 years.
"The one thing that I found to be hilariously awkward, though, is dragging and dropping media and right clicking to send it to the Media Center on another PC to be played over a specific set of speakers."
Yeah, that is awkward. Good thing it doesn't work that way. The reason she dragged the files over in media player was to create a playlist. You can right click on any media file anywhere and use "play to." The benefit of dragging the files over is you can take files from multiple folders and locations.
Alternatively, you can start playing one file, and then drag additional files into the play to window in order to create a playlist.
@jepzilla
Microsoft may very well have produced Windows Search before Spotlight appeared in OS X 10.4 but they aren't the same thing. The key difference between them, as far as the user is concerned, is that Windows Search, until Vista, was not integrated into the OS but rather was an add-on application. You could not, for example, use it to find a particular file or folder from within the standard Open File dialog. However, does any of this really matter? That Company A implemented Feature Z before Company B really isn't interesting or useful - what I want to know is, which Company has the best implementation today?
However, as much as I like Spotlight in OS X 10.5, it was pretty rubbish in 10.4 because it was so damned slow. The Fast Search of 10.3, in my opinion, was better.
Nah, I still think Kubuntu and Apple computers are best for the education. This is coming from someone who knows a lot about the business. I'm no apple/linux fanboy, I use all three major operating systems (yes I know Linux itself is not an operating system) and I can say I was quite upset when my school changed from iMacs to Dells. I think the operating systems are much easier for the kids to use and understand, as well as being a lot more advanced for students of a higher education such as high school.
As a university studen I disagree. I use windows for 3 reasons.
Some of the software we use in my classes is windows only. I'm talking Autocad and Microsoft Robotics Studio. There are of course alternatives to these, but these are the packages we're using in class and therefore it's best to learn from them.
Second with my Tablet PC I use OneNote 2007 to take all my notes and Journal to do all my homework. There are alternatives to both of these for Linux and OS X. I've used all of them and find I'm most comfortable with OneNote.
Finally, even if all my software was platform agnostic, the tablet PC features in Windows far outshine anything in Linux and OS X. From handwriting recognition to gestures to multitouch, it's just all around superior. The tablet PC is the single best tool I use in my education, and I recommend them for any student.
I don't think Windows is at all hard to use. I remember when I was first introduced to Windows 98, there were only a few things I didn't understand, so with a little help I got it. It really isn't that hard if you understand the terminology and the functions.
@Quikboy
You may be correct but it would be interesting to see which OS is easiest to use for people coming to a computer for the first time. I would have thought that studies have already been done into this.
There have been. The answer is 'it depends'.
Academics, eh?
Tantalizing Windows innovations aside, where is Latika Kirtane from?
It's an Indian name.
I figured, yet she looks somewhat stunningly polyethnic.
Latikaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Wait wait wait... In Episode 3 she said.. Your games will look great, thanks to DirectX 11..?!!? 11?? There are barely any DX10 games out.. I'm guessing she mispoke??
No Win 7 is introducing DX11. Though as of yet beyond Tech demos there is no DX11 games.
And most games of the past 2 years have been DX10, not exclusively, but you know the game makers weren't gonna stick with dated graphics.
Well they did announce that DX11 games would be surprisingly soon available, they are apparently already made, perhaps MS pushed it a lot early with lots of dosh (money) to encourage gamemakers, perhaps it's part of a soon to be xbox360-2 update too and that's why it's so accepted even? You do the rest of the speculation.
Considering there isn't much on the way of any solid, real complaints in the comments I'd say they're doing just fine.
Win 7 rocks.
Well I'm not excited, but not overly negative either (yet), I lack info and I'm not going to watch such videos either because I know I get nothing from it, so that won't help them in my case.
Anyway I'm hoping to pirate it to be honest, MS still owes me $10,000 for the hours I spent keeping their previous OS running for myself and others.
.
this might be the worst question or the best:
will my old peripherals work with this new version of windows?
unlike with vista.
has anyone w/ beta tried this? thanks in advance!
General rule of thumb is if it works under Vista it'll work under Windows 7, they both use the same Driver manager.
Though if it didn't work in the upgrade to Vista from XP then it more than likely own't work with Win7.
However if your using something that hasn't got Vista driver then it's either really old and probably worth upgrading now, or a specialist tool, in which case sticking with XP may be the best case in your scenario.
Hmm, well that's not what the thumbs I hear tell me, sometimes I hear stuff doesn't work in vista but for some weird reason works in w7, and other times the other way around, and if I average the reports I can not draw any such thumb rule out of it myself.
Plus there's the 64bit issue, it should work in 64bit, and incredibly that can STILL be an issue because even though MS supplies extensive documentation on the differences that does not seem to be read by professionals, only by freeware open source coders who seem to manage to get things running on 64bit without issues, go figure.
"Win7= quicker AND faster"
You'd think they'd have better editing
Two different words.
Quicker would be comparable to Win7 being snappier, menus load up quicker, desktop shows quicker etc.
Faster would be just general speed boost, so Quad Cores can chug through image processing faster.
Benchmarks show it's not much 'faster' than Vista, but it is in user reviews quicker, more responsive etc, which is what MS aimed for, the everyday user experience been smoother.
But is it speedier too you think?
why do they tutorials? Win7 is easy to learn
Aren't you so lucky. Personally, I disagree, particularly since some of the concepts in Windows 7 are alien to current Windows users (the addition of the Dock, for example). Tutorials are very useful to ensure that you get the most out of what you have bought but also to give you an idea of what you are buying if you aren't sure whether it is right for you. Heck, it's not like anyone provides a printed manual anymore...
Yeah, as an XP upgrader, I was rather confused about things. A few online tips like those offered by Downloadsquad (the built-in ones tend to move at their own pace and teach me things I already know) I was able to discover all the features I was missing... and now that I can't live without. Seriously, the new taskbar is beautiful. I
This reminds me of the mac educational videos and where were all these features when vista came out? They have been available on the mac for a long time. I do not mind Microsoft playing catch up, but I have a feeling that stability will be lacking. I hope Windows 7 proves me wrong.
Download the RC and try it for yourself rather than disingenuously wondering.
It is the most stable OS I have ever used, already in RC form.
Craig.
One word: Opera
You know, the browser that Apple likes to rip off its ideas from when it suits them.
Most recently, where do you suppose your speed dial came from?
Have you even tried OS X? I'm running OS X and Seven equally on my Mac and *I* am allowed to make a comparison. Not people like you.
@Bob
I run Windows 7, Vista, WHS, OSX on my Mac Mini as well as an iPhone. If I have a problem with a Mac computer or my iPhone, then the usual suspects start yelling at me saying that I am lying, making those problems up, and I really don't have a Mac. Or I am immediately labeled a "hater." So why are you allowed to make comparisons and be untouchable, but I am not?
I am going to go out and say this, I use OSX Leopard and Windows XP everyday.
Every one of the features in Episode 2 is already available in OSX. Spotlight, Dock, Expose(you can do up to 4 windows auto re sized to the screen, NOT SPACES), iPhoto, and the lil live tracker thing on websites is pretty much an RSS feed (not osx specific). And Episode 4 is basically the same thing as front row, and AirTunes. I am not saying that any of these were invented by apple or are the best implementation but they are all standard features on an older OS. It should be interesting to see how they compare when implemented on Win 7.
I don't think they copied Front Row. I think the WMC is based on WinXP Media center Edition, which seemed to have been released in 2002. I don't know too much; it's just my opinion. Well, I did comparisons in Wikipedia. Front Row and MCE also have moderately different goals, but 1 desire. I don't know about AirTunes. For the rest, it's pretty much possible and maybe even a bit obvious that MS is catching up.
I just had a heart attack briefly thinking about setting up a home network on Windows while skimming this article.
Thanks, Engadget.
I went to school with her! Seriously. Yea!
.....why? A polite reason would help and reduce amount of misinterpretations.
Disregard my comment above! Ignore it!
Woah! Calm down! Don't just blurt out negative stuff!