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From Microsoft patent to Windows reality: “X-ray browsing”, circa 2005; Aero Peek, circa 2008.

Well this was a long “I told you so” in the making. Reader “rm20010” recently commented on a blog post from mine from two years ago, and as curious as I was I decided to check out how in any way it could be relevant. It turns out to be quite interesting indeed.

In December 06 I had found this Microsoft patent from January 2005 by the old Longhorn/Vista designers (Don Lindsay & Hillel Cooperman). Today a variation of what that patent had described (as a way of managing windows) is what we has been realized in the “Aero Peek” feature of Windows 7.

If nothing else, this is a pretty good example of just how long it takes an idea from incubation to reach market and maybe an indication of just how many Longhorn-era innovations (and innovators) were ahead of their time.