Designing Windows 7
More than a billion people use Microsoft® Windows every day. You use it in significant ways, like earning a living. You use it in personally meaningful ways, such as using a webcam to visit with a faraway loved one. And you experience it in small ways, like playing your favorite song or whiling away a few minutes with a game. Though each situation might be different, your satisfaction relies on one thing: that your PC works, plain and simple.
In designing Windows 7, we focused on creating a better experience, regardless of what you do on your PC. And although we’ve made some architectural changes in Windows 7, we’ve focused mainly on building upon the platform improvements of the Windows Vista® and Windows Server® 2008 operating systems.
By definition, a great PC experience means seamless operation across all of your hardware, software, and devices. We want to make sure you have a broad choice for the programs and devices you use with your PCs. Today, the Windows Vista Compatibility Center lists more than 10,500 applications and 9,500 devices with a compatible download or driver version. In most cases, the same software and hardware that works on Windows Vista will also work on Windows 7.
Furthermore, we were careful to design Windows 7 so that the investments that our partners and our enterprise customers have made in Windows Vista will continue to deliver great value as they upgrade to Windows 7. We’ve worked closely with our partners from the earliest planning phase. Before writing code, we talked to original equipment manufacturers, the companies that make PCs. Before defining application programming interfaces, we talked to developers. And before adding support for new devices, we worked with device manufacturers to understand how
