| | | Windows 7 Inside Out, by Ed Bott, Carl Siechert, and Craig Stinson This release of the popular Windows 7 Inside Out, by Ed Bott, Carl Siechert, and Craig Stinson, includes a Foreword by Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows Division at Microsoft. In the Foreword, Mr. Sinofsky notes: "With their unique perspective, few are more qualified to offer further explanations of the ins and outs of Windows 7 than the authors of Windows 7 Inside Out." The book takes readers from configuring and customizing their computers, through mastering security essentials to help protect against viruses, worms, and spyware, to troubleshooting errors and fine-tuning performance. The CD includes a fully searchable e-book, insights directly from the product team on the official Windows 7 blog, and links to the latest security updates and products, demos, blogs, and user communities. This reference provides readers with the tools and information they need to hit the ground running in the Windows 7 operating system. Foreword Individually and collectively, the three authors who wrote Windows 7 Inside Out have been working with Windows for as long as many of the most senior developers at Microsoft. Ed, Carl, and Craig focus on Windows from a unique perspective—they are experts and enthusiasts who want to share their expertise and enthusiasm with you. With Windows 7, our development team was dedicated to building a brand new release of the OS while also making sure your investments in hardware and software are effectively brought forward. We took a deliberate approach to building new features, refining existing features, and making sure at every step we were true to our goals of delivering an awesome release of Windows. Ed, Carl, and Craig do an awesome job of providing readers with the ins and outs of the full range of features of Windows 7, which will help you to get the most out of the product. As we engineered Windows 7, we opened a dialogue with a broad community of enthusiasts on our Engineering Windows 7 blog. Through this blog, we discussed the engineering side of building Windows 7—from the bottom up, so to speak. We know that for many, these topics were interesting as Windows 7 was being developed. Through the blog and through all of our forms of learning as we developed Windows 7, we were asked many questions not just about the "how" but about the "why" of features. We offered our insights from the product development perspective. With their unique perspective, few are more qualified to offer further explanations of the ins and outs of Windows 7 than the authors of Windows 7 Inside Out. With Windows 7 now in the hands of customers around the world, our collective interests turn to making the most of Windows 7. I know from 15 years of following the work of Ed, Carl, and Craig that they have the same commitment to delivering real-world advice from a perspective that is grounded in experience and knowledge of how Windows works. Over the years, they've met with many teams here in Redmond to talk about Windows and how they can help you, our shared customers and readers, be more productive. I hope you enjoy Windows 7 Inside Out. Steven Sinofsky
President, Windows Division
Microsoft CorporationLearn more about Windows 7 Inside Out, by Ed Bott, Carl Siechert, and Craig Stinson | Editor's Pick
For Developers
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Please enjoy the Foreword to Introducing Windows 7 for Developers:
Foreword
Windows 7 is arguably the best version of Windows ever. This might sound like a generic marketing claim, and if you consider that each version of Windows has more functionality, is more scalable, and supports the latest advances in hardware, each version of Windows is better than the last and hence the best version of Windows up to that point. Windows 7, however, not only delivers things that satisfy the basic check boxes required of any new release, but does it with an end-to-end polish that surpasses previous Windows releases.
Of course, Windows 7 couldn't be the great release it is without standing on the shoulders of the major advances and innovations of its predecessor, Windows Vista, but there are some differences in how Windows 7 was developed. Windows 7 is the first release of a Windows consumer operating system that actually requires fewer resources than the previous version—something that's pretty amazing considering the addition of all the new functionality. Reducing the memory footprint, minimizing background activity, and taking advantage of the latest hardware power-management capabilities all contribute to producing a sleek, yet modern, operating system that runs more efficiently on the same hardware that ran Windows Vista.
Another change from previous releases is the way Microsoft worked with PC manufacturers and hardware vendors. Throughout the Windows 7 development cycle, it kept them apprised of coming changes, shared tools and techniques, and sent engineers onsite to help them optimize their software and hardware for the new operating system. By the time of Windows 7 general availability, most partners had over a year of deep experience with the operating system, giving them plenty of time to tune and adapt their products.
While the under-the-hood and ecosystem efforts deliver the fundamentals, Windows 7 introduces a number of features that more directly enhance a user's experience. For example, the redesigned taskbar makes it easier for users to keep track of their running applications, navigate between multiple application windows, and quickly access their frequently used applications and documents. The Windows taskbar, which hadn't changed significantly from Windows 95, had become as comfortable as an old pair of slippers; but once you've used the new interface for any length of time, you'll feel cramped if you have to sit down at an older version of Windows.
Windows 7 also unlocks PC hardware devices that are becoming increasingly common, creating a platform that empowers applications to deliver more dynamic and adaptive experiences. Mobile PCs now adjust display brightness based on ambient light and have GPS and other sensors that give Windows a view of the world immediately around it. With the infrastructure and APIs for these devices delivered in Windows 7, applications can integrate with this view to provide users with information and modes of operation specific to the local environment.
As a user of Windows and a former independent software vendor (ISV), I know how disconcerting it is when an application exhibits user-interface constructs different from the ones we've grown to consider modern by the newest operating system release or version of Office we're using. It's also frustrating when you experience the seamlessness of an application that integrates with the operating system in a way that blurs the line between it and the operating system, and then run into others that seem to flout their nonconformity or shout that they were developed for 10-year-old operating systems.
The key to great software is not to force the user to learn idiosyncratic user-interface behaviors, feel like they're in a time warp when they run it, or wish that it took advantage of their PC's capabilities like other applications do. To delight the user, you need to keep abreast of technology and user-interface trends, recognize when your application can and should take advantage of them, and deliver valued innovation to your customers. Being on the cutting edge of the platform's capabilities helps your applications stand out from the competition and conveys the message to your customers that you're hip.
This book is a great one-stop resource for learning how you can make modern applications that use new PC hardware capabilities and allow users to quickly access common functionality. From using taskbar icons that show the progress of long-running operations, to taskbar icon jump lists that provide easy access to common tasks and recently used documents; from location APIs you use to deliver the most relevant results, to library APIs that allow you to integrate with and access a user's existing document collection; from a ribbon control that exposes the extent of your application's functionality and features, to supporting a touch interface for intuitive interaction—this book is your complete guide to bringing your applications into the 2010s.
For a programming book to be worth reading in this day of instant access to online documentation and code samples, it must provide complete and coherent introductions and overviews to new concepts as well as clearly explained and straightforward code samples that are easy to reuse. Yochay, Sasha, Laurence, and Alon have delivered both in this book that's sure to become your Windows 7 programming companion whether you program to .NET or Win32 APIs. I've started adding Windows 7 functionality to the Sysinternals tools and the description and example of how to exploit the taskbar icon's progress display enabled me to enhance the Sysinternals Disk2Vhd tool literally in a matter of minutes. I know I'll be turning to this as I continue to update the tools, and I'm confident you will too, as you strive to give your applications that extra edge.
Mark Russinovich
Technical Fellow
Windows Division, Microsoft Corporation
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| |  | November 18, 2009  | |
