Hello again! It’s Mark Relph from the Windows Ecosystem Team here at Microsoft.  There is a lot of excitement for the launch of Windows 7 and we know many of you are looking for information as you think about upgrading. To help you, we are announcing the availability of two great tools today – the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor and the Windows 7 Compatibility Center.

Both these tools are available at www.windows.com/compatibility- your place to go for any Windows 7 compatibility questions you might have. Not only will you find links to the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor and Windows 7 Compatibility Center, you’ll also get compatibility help from experts in the Microsoft Answers Forums and the Windows Help & How-to team.

Now let me tell you a little bit more about what we are releasing today…

The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor scans your PC to see if it’s ready for Windows 7. It checks to see if your PC meets the system requirements, lets you know if your processor is capable of running 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and gives guidance on your upgrade options. It also tells you about any known compatibility issues with the most commonly installed software programs and devices connected to your PC. If an issue can be resolved, it suggests next steps for you to take before installing Windows 7.

 

The Windows 7 Compatibility Center helps you easily check the compatibility of thousands of devices and software programs for 32-bit or 64-bit versions of Windows 7. Usually, you won’t need to do anything to ensure compatibility. If you do, the site goes beyond just telling you what will or will not work. It also provides links to drivers and software updates to help get your PC running with the latest software.

These tools draw on an expansive database of product information that is the result of the work I described in my post on our progress with statements of support for Windows 7 for an ever expanding universe of products all around the world. We have thousands of products listed and will continue to add thousands more over the coming months. As a result, the Windows 7 Compatibility Center and Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor will be regularly updated with more products. If you don’t see a product listed on the site, please suggest an addition! If you are a hardware or software partner, be sure to tell us about your products using the Partner Submission page.

Windows 7 has been built for compatibility and we hope these tools help you as you prepare to upgrade. See you on October 22^nd for the launch of Windows 7!

Hi everyone!

My name is Gary Schare and I run our hardware ecosystem marketing team. Building on Mark’s recent post on software readiness, I wanted to provide a deeper look at hardware readiness.

Hardware compatibility is a critical feature of Windows 7. We must have strong support from the hardware ecosystem to ensure that all of you have a great experience using Windows 7 with the devices and peripherals you rely on every day. This experience can range from “it just works when I plug it in” to “it lights up a new feature of Windows 7” (like Device Stage, Play To, etc.). The ultimate endorsement of this experience is the “Compatible with Windows 7” logo which is earned by products that pass rigorous compatibility and reliability tests.

We have been working closely with hardware partners on readiness since very early on in Windows 7 development. These activities range from 1:1 technical engagement with top-tier OEMs and device makers, the Windows Ecosystem Readiness Program which scales out to tens of thousands of vendors, webinars and readiness events in the US, Asia, and Europe to assist our hardware partners as they prepare their products for the Windows 7 Logo.

All these efforts have paid off, and Windows 7 Logo momentum is very strong. We now have printers, scanners, networking cards, storage devices, video capture cards, and ultra mobile systems that have already earned the “Compatible with Windows 7” Logo, and many more on the way. Represented in this group of devices are some of the biggest names in the industry. Here are a few examples, organized by topic:

Home Networking

Home networking was once very intimidating for the average customer. That is why we have improved Windows Connect Now (known to the Windows hardware industry as Windows Rally) to help consumers easily set up a wireless network or add a device to the network in seconds. Top companies such as Linksys by Cisco and D-Link are taking advantage of this technology to help their customers.

The Linksys group at Cisco is integrating Windows Connect Now into new and currently shipping routers and network media devices. These devices will earn the “Compatible with Windows 7” logo.

Robert Berlin, Director, Home Networking and Peripheral Product Management, Cisco Consumer Business Group:

The Windows 7 platform approach to open standards, such as Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS), Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) and Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) help to enable easier connectivity of computers with home networking products such as our Linksys by Cisco routers and media entertainment products. We look forward to providing the added benefits of Windows 7 to our products for our customers to experience on their home networks. 

Other great companies like D-Link are also taking advantage of Windows Connect Now to help lower support calls for their products and create a streamlined set up experience for their customers.

Dan Kelley, D-Link:

The key to a great user experience is connectivity and Windows 7 provides D-Link with a platform and the proper resources to insure our devices provide a seamless connectivity experience out of the box.

Device Experiences

One of the great innovations in Windows 7 is Device Stage. Device Stage lets you see your device status and run common tasks from a single, branded window that’s customized for each device. Device manufacturers around the world are building customized experiences for Device Stage so their customers can easily discover new features in their devices (and even some old ones too!).

One of the many partners taking advantage of Device Stage is Sandisk.Their full line of Sansa portable media players support Device Stage allowing their customers to easily sync audio and video, access the user manual and forums, update firmware, purchase accessories, and more.

Greg Stevens, Director, Integration & QA, Sandisk:

We’re very excited for the upcoming launch. All our current and legacy Sansa portable media players support Windows 7. We also were the first company to earn the “Compatible with Windows 7” logo for any portable media players. The Sansa Clip, View, and Fuze have passed Microsoft testing for compatibility and reliability with Windows 7 under the Windows Logo Kit program.

Graphics Performance

Our partners have also been making lots of headway with Direct X. DirectX 11, introduced in Windows 7, provides an unprecedented visual experience for next-generation games on new hardware. It’s an experience that accelerates elegantly across multiple processor cores, display resolutions, memory con?gurations, and graphic adapters.

I’m especially excited by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), which delivered the first DirectX 11 graphics processor! This is fantastic for the adoption of the DirectX 11 platform, and great news for all the gamers out there.

Ben Bar-Haim, Corporate Vice President, Software Engineering, AMD:

The development of Windows 7 has been a tremendously collaborative effort, with the Microsoft and AMD teams working together to help ensure that today's customer-centric platforms can take full advantage of Windows 7, as well as preparing Windows 7 for the rapidly evolving future of computer hardware. Everything from the development of DirectX 11, improved memory efficiency, superior display management, driver model robustness, and the new GPU acceleration infrastructure for desktop and scientific applications points to an advanced operating system designed to the needs of the computer industry for years to come.

And More …

There are many other partners getting ready for Windows 7 across a variety of device categories. To learn more about what they’re doing, you can visit ReadySet7.com where we’ve brought together stories and videos from our hardware and software partners. Here are a few examples.

Dwight Diercks, Vice President of Software Engineering at NVIDIA:

All of our hard work teaming with Microsoft over the past two years will pay off for NVIDIA GPU owners when Windows 7 launches. Our customers are demanding an experience that is faster and more visual, and the new GPU-accelerated features like DirectX Compute are sure to blow people away.

Hanoz Gandhi, Vice President of Products, Belkin:

Belkin is committed to giving our customers the ability to create a reliable network that seamlessly integrates with the upcoming release of Windows 7. We are working closely with Microsoft to test Windows 7 with our products and plan to provide support for Windows 7 after it’s publically available.

Ikuaki Kitabayashi, General Manager of Planning and Design, Epson:

One of the key innovations in Windows 7 is Device Stage, which brings together the formerly independent features of Epson’s multifunction printers into one location, allowing users to see device status and run common tasks from a single window, thereby providing seamless device usability. Also, a photo-realistic icon that represents their physical device further improves the ability to interact with Epson’s multifunction printers. With HomeGroup, Epson printers are easily shared with other PCs in the home, while being protected by dependable security measures. In addition, Epson’s network projectors support the Windows Network Projection feature in Windows 7. Finally, the Windows Rally program has really allowed Epson to focus on making the most of Windows 7’s advanced device management and networking features, and optimizing the user experience.

Tzumu Lin, CEO of WonderMedia Technologies, Inc:

We are pleased to offer support for Microsoft’s much-anticipated Windows 7 throughout our portfolio of feature-rich Networked Media Devices. Our WonderMedia PRIZM platform offers proven and certified building blocks for Windows 7-based devices, allowing end-users to enjoy the full Windows 7 experience and optimal system performance.

Scott Rader, Director of Product Management, WD Branded Products:

Our close working relationship with MSFT allowed us to take advantage of the features of Windows 7 to provide our customers a seamless, user-friendly experience while keeping their content secure and readily accessible.

Frank Martin, Sr. Director of Product Planning, Brother International Corp:

Windows 7 will take the user experience to the next level of features and usability. Brother is ready to utilize these new resources which can offer a truly rich user experience. We can’' wait for our customers to have such a great experience with Windows 7 and Brother Products.

James Brailean, PhD., CEO, Packetvideo:

PacketVideo is working with Windows 7 to leverage the innovations for Device Stage to enable consumers to enjoy their photo, video and music files on connected devices throughout the home without limitation or hassle. This is through PV’s TwonkyMedia server, a best-in-class solution that has been adopted by leading consumer electronics manufacturers in the industry, and mobile handset connectivity solutions to the PC.

RK Parthasarathy, Vice President of Marketing, Ubicom:

Ubicom is expanding the definitions of the connected home and digital lifestyle through our flexible, highly integrated technology for networking, media and peripheral functionality. The ability to interoperate with Windows 7 ahead of public release ensures compelling user experiences for our customers’ products when they hit the market.

Todd Antes, Vice President of Computing and Consumer Networking, Atheros:

Robust support for Windows 7 is another important way that Atheros is demonstrating our commitment to delivering the best possible wireless experience in devices throughout the digital home and in the growing array of computing products, including notebooks and netbooks. We are pleased to have obtained the Compatible with Windows 7 logo for both our networking and computing solutions.

RELATED BLOG POSTS:

• Partner Software Ecosystem Continues to Line Up to Support Windows 7
• An Ecosystem Update for Windows 7
  

Hi, Mike Nash here from the Windows Platform Strategy Team.

Earlier this week, I was in New Orleans at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC). It was amazing to see the strength and scale of the Windows ecosystem at this event, particularly as we get closer to the launch of Windows 7.

As I return to Redmond, I’d like to give an update on our approach to partner outreach and enabling the Windows ecosystem.

Driving early engagement

Our partners have been clear from the outset that they needed access to stable Windows 7 builds as early as possible. So we started our ecosystem readiness journey by delivering an API complete pre-release developer build of Windows 7 in October at the PDC, a year before our scheduled General Availability (GA). We followed that with Windows 7 Beta at CES in January, and Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) in May.

This access has enabled partners to be in a great position to complete final testing of their products and services when Windows 7 is released to manufacturing (RTM) later this month.

Focusing on application and device compatibility

When we designed Windows 7, we worked to minimize changes in the way applications and devices interact with Windows. As a result, the work done by 3rd party software and hardware developers to make their products work on Windows Vista generally carries forward for Windows 7. In most cases, the same software and hardware that works on Windows Vista will also work on Windows 7 today.

Some software that is written to very low levels of the operating system, like antivirus and disk imaging software, may require some updates. We have been able to engage closely with those partners and have addressed compatibility issues earlier in the process. As a result, today 10 antivirus companies offer beta versions of their flagship products that are compatible with Windows 7 RC.

New content and programs for partners

Millions of developers and partners have been able to get detailed technical guidance, white papers, tools and code samples from the Windows Developer Center, so they can plan, build and test on Windows 7 sooner. Moreover, thousands of partners are participating in the Windows Ecosystem Readiness Program, which has reached nearly 45,000 software and hardware developers. And over 6 million people have checked out the content at Ready. Set. 7 about how many of our partners are preparing for and innovating on Windows 7.

How customers can get ready for Windows 7

We’ve also been working to ensure customers can take advantage of all of this great work by the Windows ecosystem.

We have created the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, an end-user tool designed to help customers assess their ability to upgrade their Windows XP or Windows Vista-based PCs to Windows 7. A Beta version of the can be downloaded here.

We also have the Windows 7 Logo Program, to help customers know what is compatible with Windows 7. While many products will work with Windows 7, products that carry the “Compatible with Windows 7” logo have passed testing for compatibility with Windows 7 – and because 64-bit support is a logo requirement, logo’d devices will work with both 32 and 64 bit!

Business customers can also use the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, but they need more information on compatibility for enterprise applications. So we’ve also put together a comprehensive list of the most widely used enterprise applications, which we have continuously tested on Windows 7 throughout the product cycle. In addition, there is the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) to help customers assess compatibility of software.

For internally developed line-of-business (LOB) applications, Windows 7 provides a number of in-box compatibility tools. For example, if an application fails to install because of a hard-coded version check (some software installers check the version of Windows you’re running), the Program Compatibility Troubleshooter can troubleshoot the problem by using a version number expected by the installer and running the installer again, with user consent.

How developers can get ready for Windows 7

If you’re a developer and you haven’t yet started testing for Windows 7, I recommend you do 5 key things:

1. Go download the Windows 7 Release Candidate and try it out.
2. Get compatible and test your products.  You can visit www.readyset7.com to learn more about getting ready for Windows 7.
3. Test for the Logo Requirements with our Windows Logo Kit for software and hardware.
4. Tell the world!  Make a statement of support on the Windows Compatibility Center.
5. Unlock your creativity and innovation with the new features in Windows 7. Get started by taking advantage of new opportunities in Windows 7 by evaluating the Windows 7 Developer Guide and Windows Hardware Developer Central.

Being at WPC is a good reminder of all the work it takes across tens of thousands of companies and millions of developers and IT professionals to get ready for a new Windows release. So let me conclude by saying THANK YOU to all of our partners from around the world for your engagement, testing, innovation and feedback – all which will help make Windows 7 a great release for our mutual customers.

--Mike

To help the ecosystem of software developers, device manufacturers, independent software vendors and others prepare for Windows 7 – I wanted to let you know about the Windows 7 Ecosystem Readiness Program. 

The Windows 7 Ecosystem Readiness Program is designed to help hardware and software partners ensure that their existing applications, devices and systems will be compatible with Windows 7. The program provides partners with access to Windows 7 builds, application testing labs and toolkits through Microsoft Connect to help with their development efforts to build innovative solutions for their customers.

If you are a hardware or software developer, I encourage you to visit the following sites where you can get tools and resources you need to get started on the path to Windows 7:

• MSDN – Windows Client: www.msdn.com/windows
• Windows Hardware Developer Central: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/win7

Mike Nash, Corporate Vice President of Windows Product Management (and author of many blog posts here on The Windows Blog), discusses the new program and how partners can prepare for the availability of Windows 7 in a Q&A with Microsoft PressPass. Mike’s Q&A with PressPass is a great way to find out what we’re doing to ensure the ecosystem will be ready for Windows 7.

The Windows 7 Ecosystem Readiness Program is designed for hardware and software partners only.

For folks just wanting to try out Windows 7, please visit www.windows.com/windows7 to try the Windows 7 Beta. Hurry though as we are about to limit downloads for the Windows 7 Beta – see details in my blog post here.