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INTRODUCTION

Microsoft Corp. has always worked to bring the full power of computing to the

widest possible audience, helping people to benefit from great choices in the

technology they use at an affordable price. In recent years, people have

dramatically changed the way they use technology. They want consistent and

connected experiences across a variety of devices they use every day, available

when and where they need them. They want their PCs, mobile phones and other

devices to work more intuitively and reliably, while their information remains

private and highly secure. They want to choose from a wide variety of devices,

software and services to match their habits, tastes and preferences. At thesame time, the shift from a world of client applications to connected

applications and Internet services has driven higher expectations about the

pace of innovation in the software industry.

With Windows 7, Microsoft is delivering a foundation for exceptional customer

experiences across applications, services and devices. Windows 7 builds on the

substantial investments Microsoft made in the fundamentals of Windows Vista

to help improve security, reliability and performance. At the same time,

Windows 7 enhances PC manageability and introduces compelling new

experiences, delivering an operating system that is nimble, highly reliable,more secure, optimized for today’s powerful hardware and able to easily

connect with the devices people use today.

Windows 7 reflects an evolved approach to engineering that weaves customer

and partner feedback more closely into the development process. It delivers

innovative new features while focusing on preserving application and device 

compatibility. With Windows 7, Microsoft seeks to establish a more consistent

and predictable release schedule so partners across the PC ecosystem can

easily and quickly build on the new capabilities Windows has to offer.

  This document provides a quick introduction to some of the features and

benefits of the Windows 7 operating system. It describes key benefits for users

and IT professionals, and introduces just a few of the new experiences available

in Windows 7.

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WHAT WINDOWS 7 MEANS TO USERS

As a Windows user, you depend on your PC more than ever. You want

everything you do on your computer to be faster and easier. You want the

devices you depend on to work well with your PC, and you’d like it if Windows

could make the technology components in your home work well together. You

spend a lot of time on the Web, so you’d like that experience to be faster and

safer as well — and you’d like it to be consistent with your offline experience, so

that you don’t have to learn two ways to do the same thing.

Meet Windows 7. We think you’re going to like what you see.

In Windows 7, Microsoft focused on delivering improved experiences for users in

three key areas:

It Works the Way You Want. Windows 7 delivers the fundamental

performance, reliability and security features you expect — and it is designed to

be compatible with the same hardware, applications and device drivers as

Windows Vista. New features help protect your privacy and data, make it easier

to keep your PC running smoothly, and enable you to recover from problems

more quickly.

Everyday Tasks Are Faster and Easier. Windows 7 streamlines and

simplifies the tasks you do most often. Improved navigation and a streamlined

user interface put commonly used resources within easy reach. Sharing data

across all your PCs and devices is easier too, whether you’re at home, in the

office or on the go. Windows 7 and Windows Live help you stay connected to

the people and things you care about, and Internet Explorer 8 provides a faster,

safer and more productive Web experience.

New Things Are Possible. Windows 7 gives you more choice in how you

interact with your PC, with options that include multitouch gestures,handwriting and voice. Windows 7 makes it easy to use your home audio-video

system and other networked media devices to play music, watch videos and

display photos that reside on your PC. An enhanced Windows Media Center 

offers one-stop access to your favorite TV shows. And Windows 7 offers more

options than ever for you to customize and personalize your PC with styles that

match your personality1.

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moving two fingers closer together on the screen or zoom

out by moving your fingers apart. The Windows Startmenu, Windows Taskbar and Windows Explorer aretouch-friendly, with larger icons that are easier toselect with your finger. Browsing the Web withInternet Explorer 8 is easier too — just use your fingerto scroll down a Web page or browse your favoritelinks.

HomeGroup HomeGroup in Windows 7 makes sharing files across the PCs and devices in your home as easy as if all your data were on a single hard drive. ThroughHomeGroup, PCs running Windows 7 can automatically

identify and connect with each other. Once aHomeGroup is established, sharing devices and media throughout your home is easy. For example, theprinter in your den can be shared automatically withall the PCs in the house, and digital photos stored on acomputer in your den can be easily accessed from alaptop anywhere in the house.

DeviceStage

For mobile phones, portable media players, cameras,printers and other devices connected to a Windows 7-based PC, Device Stage lets users run common tasks

from a single, elegant window that’s customized foreach device. With data from the manufacturers, thewindow can be customized for each device, making iteasy to find and use all the features the device has tooffer, including synchronizing contacts, capturingphotos and creating cell phone ring tones.

Keep YourLife in SyncWithWindowsLive

Communication and sharing services are fundamental

to your Windows experience. In Windows 7, certain

functionality that was included in previous versions of 

Windows is not included in the operating system. But

through Windows Live Essentials, a set of freeapplications available for your PC and supported by

Windows 7, you can download Windows Live Mail,

Windows Live Photo Gallery, Windows Live Writer,

Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Movie Maker

and more. These applications will be updated regularly

to provide innovative functionality and best-of-breed

integration with Windows Live and other popular Web-

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based services. As a result, you’ll benefit from more

rapid delivery of new features and services.Windows Live Essentials applications enrich yourInternet experience by letting you access your dataoffline and helping you create and edit your photos,videos, blogs and other content you want to share —using software that takes full advantage of Windows.And with Windows Live Essentials, it’s easy to publishyour content to Windows Live or other online services.

In February, Dell Inc. will pre-install Windows LiveEssentials on its consumer and small-business PCs,

providing customers worldwide with instant access tothe applications they use most — e-mail, instantmessaging, photo sharing and management — all forfree.

The Web at YourServiceWithInternetExplorer 8

Browsing the Web is the single most popular activity

on the PC. Internet Explorer 8 addresses changing

user needs through significant enhancements in four

main areas:

Faster and Easier Browsing. Internet Explorer 8

starts up faster, creates new tabs in a snap, and loadsand runs Web sites more quickly.

Reaching Beyond the Page.  Accelerators make it

easier to take action on information on Web pages,

and Web Slices enable you to monitor changes on

sites of interest.

Safety, Choice and Control. Internet Explorer 8

delivers improved protection against malicious Web

sites and software. It helps protect your privacy by

providing increased choice and control over how Websites can track your actions.

Compatibility. None of these improvements matter if Web sites look bad or work poorly. Internet Explorer 8supports new Web standards while providing acompatibility mode for sites designed for olderversions of the browser.

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WHAT WINDOWS 7 MEANS TO ITPROFESSIONALS

Users are becoming more and more computer-savvy, and they expect more

from the technology they use at work. As users’ needs have changed, the

demands on IT professionals have only increased. Today, IT professionals are

being asked to provide more capabilities and support greater flexibility, while

continuing to minimize cost and security risks.

Windows 7 gives IT professionals the flexibility to meet users’ diverse needs in a

way that is more manageable. Benefits for IT professionals fall into three keyareas:

Making users productive virtually anywhere. Windows 7 enables users to

be productive and access data on the go.

Enhancing security and control. Windows 7 builds on the security

foundation of Windows Vista and delivers increased flexibility for IT

professionals working to secure PCs and data.

Streamlining PC management. Whether IT professionals manage and deploy

desktops, laptops or virtual environments, Windows 7 makes the job easierand enables them to utilize the same tools and skills they use with Windows

Vista.

 The Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, which is updated at least once a year,

completes the enterprise experience. By using Windows 7 and the Microsoft

Desktop Optimization Pack together, enterprises can help optimize their

desktop infrastructure and gain the flexibility to address their unique business

needs.

 The following are a few of the key features that make Windows 7 a compellingrelease for IT professionals and the users they support:

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DirectAcces

s

Giving users flexible access to applications and data

when out of the office is an essential component of any enterprise IT strategy. DirectAccess, a newfeature in Windows 7, enables remote users to accessthe corporate network virtually anytime they have anInternet connection, without the extra step of initiatinga virtual private networking (VPN) connection. For ITprofessionals, DirectAccess simplifies IT managementby providing an “always managed” infrastructure, inwhich computers outside the office can remainhealthy, managed and updated.

(Note: To take advantage of DirectAccess, IT 

 professionals need to deploy Windows Server 2008 R2and implement IPv6 and IPSec.)

SearchFederation

Search Federation in Windows 7 provides out-of-the-box support for searching beyond the user’s PC. ITprofessionals can easily enable search engines,document repositories (such as Microsoft SharePoint

sites), Web applications and proprietary data stores tobe searched from Windows 7. This enables users tosearch the corporate intranet or the Web as easily asthey can search their local files — all from within the

same familiar Windows interface.BranchCache

Windows 7 introduces BranchCache, which caches

content from remote file servers and Web servers in

branch locations so that users can access the

information more quickly. BranchCache supports the

same network protocols that are commonly used in

enterprises — namely, HTTPS and Server Message

Block (SMB) — so that any applications based on those

protocols can automatically benefit from the

technology. BranchCache also supports network

security protocols such as secure sockets layer (SSL)

and Internet Protocol security (IPSec), helping ensure

that only authorized clients can access requested

data.

(Note: To take advantage of BranchCache, IT  professionals need to deploy Windows Server 2008R2.)

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BitLocker

andBitLocker ToGo

BitLocker Drive Encryption functionality in Windows 7

delivers an improved experience for IT professionalsand users, including the ability to right-click on a driveto enable BitLocker protection, automatic creation of the required hidden boot partition, and improved keymanagement. Windows 7 also introduces BitLocker ToGo, which provides data protection for removablestorage devices such as Universal Serial Bus (USB)

flash drives. BitLocker To Go gives IT professionalscontrol over how removable storage devices can beused. For example, IT professionals can require dataprotection for writing to any removable storage device

while allowing unprotected storage devices to be usedin a read-only mode.

DeploymentImageServicingandManagement

 The Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM)

tool in Windows 7 enables IT professionals to build andservice operating system images using a single,consolidated tool set. With DISM, IT professionals canupdate operating system images with softwareupdates; add optional components; add, enumerateand remove third-party device drivers; add languagepacks and apply international settings; and maintainan inventory of offline images that includes drivers,packages, features and software updates. DISM alsocan be used to manage Windows Vista system images.

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WINDOWS 7: A FOCUS ON FUNDAMENTALS

None of the innovations in Windows 7 matter if the operating system doesn’t

deliver on the basics. You need your PC to be reliable, responsive and safer. You

want your laptop’s battery to last longer, and you need the applications and

devices you depend on to work well with your PC. In other words, you want

everything to “just work” — and to work the way you want it to.

 That’s why fundamentals are a key focus for Windows 7 — something you’ll

notice as soon as you take a new Windows 7-based PC out of the box. Windows

7 builds on the substantial investments that Microsoft made in Windows Vista to

deliver an operating system that boots quickly; is fast, highly reliable and more

secure; works well with your existing applications and devices; and helps you

get the most out of today’s powerful hardware.

Performance. Windows 7 starts, shuts down and resumes from Standby mode

faster than earlier versions of Windows do. Search and indexing are faster, and

you can take greater advantage of external USB flash memory drives to

improve performance.

Reliability. Reliability improvements in Windows 7 include a Fault Tolerant

Heap to resolve common memory management issues; Process Refection toreduce the disruption caused by diagnostics; and driver sandboxing to prevent

poorly written device drivers from negatively affecting other device drivers. The

result is that your Windows 7-based PC is more resilient, so you’ll experience

fewer hangs and crashes.

Application Compatibility. A key engineering goal for Microsoft is that

software that runs on Windows Vista runs as well or better on Windows 7. To

meet this goal, Windows 7 is continually tested against a comprehensive list of 

the most widely used consumer and enterprise applications. Microsoft is

investing in partner outreach efforts so that software developers have theresources required to ensure application compatibility. And, for untested or in-

house developed applications, Windows 7 includes a number of in-box

compatibility aids.

Device Compatibility. As with software, Microsoft set an engineering goal that

devices that work with Windows Vista also work with Windows 7 — and it has

greatly expanded the list of devices and peripherals that are being tested for

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compatibility. When updated device drivers are required, Microsoft is working to

ensure that you can get them directly from Windows Update or through links todriver downloads on device manufacturers’ Web sites.

Security. Windows 7 delivers new capabilities to better protect your security

and privacy, and make existing security features such as User Account Control 

and Windows Defender easier to use. Third-party firewall products can build on

the core capabilities of Windows Firewall to add custom features and can

selectively turn parts of the Windows Firewall on or off, enabling you to choose

which software firewall you want to use and have it coexist with Windows

Firewall.

Improved Battery Life. Improvements to power management in Windows 7

will help extend the battery life of your mobile PC. Background activities are

reduced, enabling your computer’s processor to conserve power by remaining

idle more often. Windows 7 also intelligently reduces display brightness to

conserve battery life, uses less power when playing a standard-definition DVD,

turns off power to your computer’s Ethernet adapter when it’s not being used,

and enables you to take advantage of sleep state and remotely “wake up” a

wirelessly connected PC.

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CONCLUSION

Windows software is part of the everyday experience of billions of people. They

experience it in significant ways, such as using a webcam to visit with a loved

one on the other side of the world, and they experience it in small ways, such as

simply launching a favorite program or game. In each case, their satisfaction

depends on those experiences just working — in a way that’s intuitive and

inspiring. In designing Windows 7, Microsoft focused on delivering greater

customer satisfaction in both big and small ways.

 This guide highlights just a few of the ways that Windows 7 helps meet the

needs of both users and IT professionals, providing a brief glimpse of how it

makes the things that people do today faster and easier and makes new things

possible. We encourage you to experiment with the beta of Windows 7, and to

try the beta version of the product when it becomes available.

1 Some product features of Windows 7, such as the ability to watch and record live TV or

navigation through the use of “touch,” may require advanced or additional hardware.

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