Microsoft made the first beta release of its upcoming client operating system, Windows 7 (officially) public. While the OS has been open for downloads for MSDN and TechNet subscribers for the past two days, the company made it public in essence making it open for everyone to download it starting today.

Users will be able to download the Windows 7 Beta 1 DVD image file (.iso) from the official Windows 7 page on the company website here. The disk image file weighs 2.7 GB (3.15 GB for the 64-bit version). Unlike with earlier beta versions of Windows Vista, Windows 7 beta isn't available in a CD image format. "I really believe that Windows 7 is the best operating system we've ever developed," said Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft. "I encourage you all to get out and download it" he added.

Yesterday ATI released two updates to its Catalyst driver package, the one is actually being a whole new driver for Windows 7. The ATI Catalyst preview driver for Windows 7 includes drivers for all Radeon HD 2000, 3000 and 4000 series GPUs plus the ATI Catalyst Control Center with limited features support.
The ATI Catalyst release 8.12 hotfix is said to improve DirectX10 performance in various applications in multi-core CPU systems. It also resolves the BSOD issues using dual ATI Radeon HD 4850 in CrossFire mode.

DOWNLOAD: Windows 7 Preview Driver | ATI Catalyst release 8.12 HOTFIX

Back when Redmond was gearing up for the launch of Windows Vista, the PC hardware industry had its own plans, of brandishing support for the new operating system. Microsoft then came up with its "Windows Vista-Capable" hardware tag, which eventually put the company into an embarrassing situation where users would rant about their hardware, more so branded PCs and notebooks, being anything but capable of the OS. That was because vendors sold PCs with dated DirectX 9 supportive hardware, which didn't quite qualify to be "capable" of the DirectX 10 API the OS shipped with. The company even saw itself facing charges for false marketing.

To avoid that happening with the next release of the OS, Windows 7, Microsoft shaped up the Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform (WARP10). WARP10 is a component of the DirectX 10 API that provides software rasterization for all DirectX 10 calls, using every available hardware component the PC has. Think of it as 100% software acceleration in the absence of compliant hardware. It is shipping in beta form in the November 2008 DirectX SDK. Now, even a Pentium III 800 MHz will be "capable" of rendering Direct3D 10 scenes, as Microsoft puts it. With this, Microsoft guarantees that any and every PC or notebook carrying the "Vista Capable" sticker would be able to use every single feature the OS has to offer, including DirectX 10. WARP10 benefits from multi-threaded and multi-core CPUs, with specific benefits coming out from the availability of SSE4.1 instruction sets. Microsoft claims that even the CPU in Windows Vista's minimum system requirements list will be capable of WARP10. The excitement however, dies down when you find out just how capable today's CPUs are in accelerating 3D: An Intel Core i7 was able to "run" Crysis, on a resolution of 800 x 600, churning out a proud 7.36 frames per second (at least it managed to beat Intel's best integrated graphics). To learn more about WARP10, visit this page.

Microsoft's Ben Basaric, product marketing manager for Windows products, confirmed to PC Games Hardware that the next major update to the DirectX API, DirectX 11 would accompany Windows 7, the next major consumer operating system software by Microsoft. This, overwriting his own statement given to the website earlier that he wasn't sure if DirectX 11 would be ready to ship with the OS upon its launch. Furthermore, he also indicated that Windows Vista will have access to the updated API, although not sure at what point in time.

Today at its Professional Developers Conference 2008 (PDC2008), Microsoft Corp. rallied software developers by sharing the first full public demo of Windows 7. Windows 7 extends developers' investments in Windows Vista and encourages the creation of new applications and services for the Windows platform. The company also delivered a pre-beta build of Windows 7 to PDC attendees and announced plans to release a full Windows 7 beta early next year.

Microsoft also demonstrated, for the first time, its new Web applications for Office, which are lightweight versions of Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote that are used from within standard Web browsers. The company showed how anyone can use all of the Web, phone, and PC versions of Office to edit the same rich document, switching among them seamlessly with lossless file compatibility.

Windows 7 is Microsoft's next major PC operating system. Early non-retail versions of this OS may have already made it to certain sections of the industry, and this calls for hardware support. AMD is ready with its ATI Catalyst driver suite for Windows 7. The driver itself is titled ATI Catalyst Windows 7 Preview Driver Package. As the name suggests, it is at an experimental/early stage, much like the OS itself. Use of it is not covered by any warranty. It provides support for ATI Radeon HD 2000 series, HD 3000 series, HD 4000 series, derived mobile GPUs, and AMD 7 series chipsets with integrated graphics.

The 32-bit version of the driver can be downloaded from here, and the 64-bit version here.

HP has been showing off its latest creation, the Touchsmart IQ518, an all-in-one PC with a 22" widescreen multi-touch panel. The expected launch price is to be around $1800 (US) and HP has said Pegatron Technology will be handling its manufacture. There have been no other details in terms of specification as yet but it is likely that systems such as this are preparing for the launch of Windows 7, as it has already been said that Microsoft will be implementing touchscreen technology as a key aspect of the upcoming OS.

DigiTimes reporters have posted information that ASUS is working on a touch-screen equipped Eee PC. The new netbook will start appearing during the first or the second quarter of 2009, according to the report which claims to have the information from various panel makers. ASUS is also expected to ship the touch panel netbooks with Windows 7, Microsoft's latest OS. AU Optronics (AUO) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) will most likely supply the touch panels. They both plan to launch 11.6-inch and 12.1-inch touch panels in February next year, so if the calculations are right the new Eee PCs will be assembled with their panels. ASUSTeK is yet to decide what panel size to use.

Windows 7 is Microsoft's next client operating system. It will succeed the current release, Windows Vista. There has been some talk about whether the company would retain the name "Windows 7", which has been used so far, to refer to the OS, and it is the name that release candidates carry. Mike Nash, Vice President for Microsoft's Windows Product Management has confirmed in his recent blog post, that the OS retains the name "Windows 7", for its commercial release. Nash stated that since it's the seventh major release of the client OS, it would make sense calling it Windows 7.

Nash explained the thought behind not giving it a name based on its release date (eg. Windows 95/98) or using "aspirational monikers" (eg. Windows eXPperience/Vista), by saying that since the company doesn't release a new Windows version every year, and that using an aspirational name did not do justice to what they were trying to achieve. It made all the more sense caling it Windows 7, being the seventh release.

Windows XP, the OS that is still widely available although its Vista successor is trying to get the upper hand for more than a year, has just received another six months before going down forever. Earlier this summer, Microsoft instructed retailers to stop selling copies of Windows XP to consumers. Regardless of that customers were still able to use their lovely XP OS through a loophole that allowed them to purchase a new computer running certain version of Windows Vista and still downgrade to Windows XP for free. Originally, that option was set to expire on January 31st, 2009. Now Microsoft has extended that date by another six months, through July 31st, 2009. Recent market research shows that one third of the customers that can take advantage of the downgrade program, return to Windows XP without thinking twice. Recently Microsoft also made Windows XP licenses and support available for netbooks until 2010. With little help Windows XP could be still alive when Vista's deputy Windows 7 becomes available.

AMD conducted a presentation at CEATEC Japan, where the company took a sneak-peak at how the role of GPUs would become critical to the PC of tomorrow. This of course revolved around the company's newly adopted "The Future is Fusion" slogan, integrating all of AMD's technological expertise into object and function oriented solutions for the PC industry.

Among the numerous slides that formed part of the presentation, one such slide, shows some very interesting points on what the year 2009 looks like, from AMD's perspective. It shows a lot of things slated for much later to make it to the industry. To begin with, the DirectX 11 API and Windows 7 (Vienna) operating system could make it to the industry in 2009. However, there's no mention of them being "released" as such, or if they could just be working prototypes, such as alpha releases for use by select parts of the industry for mutual technology development.

Microsoft Corp. confirmed today that it will unveil Windows 7, the next major version of Windows, at PDC and provide developers and attendees with a pre-beta build of the operating system. During the Professional Developers Conference 2008 (PDC), Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, will keynote some of the Windows 7 features -including the kernel, networking, hardware and devices, and user-interface. Also, at this year's PDC, keynote attendees will be among the first to receive a pre-beta build copy of Windows 7. Additionally, attendees will have the opportunity to attend 21 different sessions that drill down into the details of developing for Windows 7. "Keynote attendees will be among the first to receive the pre-beta build of Windows 7," the company said.

Talking to CNET, Microsoft has confirmed it will not be including any built-in programs for Email, Photo Editing and Movie Making. Instead the Windows Live Suite (found here) will be available to download if consumers still wish to use the relevant Microsoft Products.

Windows Live general manager Brian Hall said Microsoft made the decision to remove the tools from Windows for several reasons, including a desire to issue new operating system releases more quickly than it has in the past. The move also removes the confusion of offering and supporting two different programs that perform essentially similar functions.

"It makes it much cleaner," Hall said.

Lastly, he said, making the Windows Live tools completely separate from the operating system paves the way for Microsoft to work selectively with specific partners.

"We can do things with specific partners to enable really great experiences that might be hard in Windows," Hall said.

Antitrust rules make it hard for Microsoft to tie operating system features to specific services.

Microsoft has launched an MSDN Blog for the Engineering of Windows 7, dubbed E7 for short. The blog, hosted by two Windows 7 senior engineering managers, is aimed to inform "...enthusiasts, bloggers, and those that are the most passionate about Windows... what's in store for the next major release of Windows."

You can check out the blog here

We strongly believe that success for Windows 7 includes an open and honest, and two-way, discussion about how we balance all of these interests and deliver software on the scale of Windows. We promise and will deliver such a dialog with this blog.

We, as a team, definitely learned some lessons about "disclosure" and how we can all too easily get ahead of ourselves in talking about features before our understanding of them is solid. Our intent with Windows 7 and the pre-release communication is to make sure that we have a reasonable degree of confidence in what we talk about when we do talk. Again, top of mind for us is the responsibility we feel to make sure we are not stressing priorities, churning resource allocations, or causing strategic confusion among the tens of thousands of partners and customers who care deeply and have much invested in the evolution of Windows.

Windows 7 is currently scheduled for release in 2010 based on information which we covered here

Now that Microsoft officially confirmed support for Windows XP until year 2014, Intel has decided to skip upgrading to Windows Vista. The chip giant won't upgrade the computers of its own 80,000 employees to Microsoft's Vista operating system, according to a person close to Intel's IT department. "This isn't a matter of dissing Microsoft, but Intel information technology staff just found no compelling case for adopting Vista," the person said. There's no official reason for this decision, but it's quite obvious that Vista is still not mature enough to succeed Windows XP. Sad but true. Meanwhile, the next version of Windows codenamed Windows 7 is scheduled to go on sale in January 2010. By skipping Vista, Intel dooms its workers to Windows XP for at least two more years.

Microsoft is now backing off comments by chairman Bill Gates that the next version of Windows could be available as early as next year. "We are currently in the planning stages for Windows 7 and development is scoped to three years from Windows Vista consumer" general availability, a Microsoft spokesman said in an e-mail Friday to InformationWeek. Windows Vista was released to consumers in late January 2007. That means Windows 7 would not be released until January 2010, regardless of the fact that Bill Gates told Windows 7 may be released "sometime in the next year [2009] or so". Microsoft said Gates may have been referring to trial versions of Windows 7. "As is standard with the release of a new product, we will be releasing early builds of Windows 7 prior to its general availability as a means to gain tester feedback," the spokesman said. "We're not sharing additional information at this time," the spokesman added.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said on Friday that Windows 7, the next major version of Windows, could come within the next year, far ahead of the development schedule indicated by the software maker. In response to a question about Windows Vista, Gates, speaking before the Inter-American Development Bank, said: "Sometime in the next year or so we will have a new version." Referring to Blackcomb or Windows 7, the code names for the next full release of Windows client software, Gates said: "I'm super-enthused about what it will do in lots of ways." Previously it was generally believed that Windows 7 OS would ship sometime in year 2010. The current version of Windows, known as Vista, shipped in January 2007. Microsoft's Windows XP is still widely available though, with no plans to be stopped until Windows 7 is released, Microsoft also announced yesterday.

Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 7 is on track for release in 2010. During its internal "MGX" global sales meeting this week, Microsoft witnessed that the code name for Vista's successor is "Windows 7" and the project is due to see light in approximately three years.

We are currently in the planning stages for Windows 7 and development is scoped to three years from Windows Vista Consumer GA. The specific release date will be determined once the company meets its quality bar for release

a Microsoft spokesperson revealed to Softpedia via email. Outside of the confirmation quoted above, Microsoft did not comment more on Windows 7.

According to TG Daily, the next version of Windows (codenamed Blackcomb Vienna) could be scheduled for release as early as the second half of next year. The operating system was originally slated to be launched in 2010, but the latest roadmap from Microsoft gives Windows 7 a release-to-manufacturer (RTM) date of H2 2009. The site is also reporting that an early version of the software, being dubbed "Milestone 1" (M1), has already been shipped to key Microsoft partners. If true, this would mean that Windows Vista will only last as the company's flagship operating system for about three years - compared to the five years of Windows XP.

Some small but significant details of the next major release of Windows have emerged via a presentation at the University of Illinois by Microsoft engineer Eric Traut. His presentation focuses on an internal project called "MinWin," designed to optimize the Windows kernel to a minimum footprint, which will be the basis core for the next generation Windows 7. Click here to watch the presentation.