Tomorrow’s our big day – Windows 7 officially launches and hits General Availability (or GA as we have acronyms for everything). That means Windows 7 will be available for purchase worldwide! I thought I’d take a moment to highlight some things to look out for as Windows 7 becomes available in stores and online around the world.

We have big events happening in many countries, including: Japan, UK, Germany, France, China and more. Plus we’re hosting a launch party in New York City tomorrow, which will be hosted by our own CEO Steve Ballmer. Even if you’re not in New York, you can still attend online.

Watch the New York City Windows 7 Launch Party LIVE – Starting 8am Pacific / 11am Eastern!

Customer-hosted Windows 7 Launch Parties will also be taking place starting tomorrow. As you know, Microsoft employee Windows 7 launch parties have been happening already. If you don’t live in a country where Launch Parties are available to host, you can hold a Windows 7 Meetup instead! We are providing people with the resources they need to host a Meetup here on Windows.com.

We will be updating our Virtual Press Room on Microsoft PressPass for Windows 7throughout the day tomorrow. You will be able to find all kinds of goodies including the webcast of our New York launch party, video clips and b-roll footage, photos, fact sheets and other materials, and more. If you’re planning to blog about Windows 7 tomorrow, this will be an excellent resource for you!

I’ve got several important (and pretty exciting) blog posts coming tomorrow that you’ll definitely want to read. So be on the lookout for these. And we have quite a few partners lined up doing guest blog posts for the Windows Partner Blog as well! I’m pretty stoked about what we’ve got lined up in terms of blogging for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is shaping up for one exciting day!

Beginning tomorrow, several very cool new offers will start that customers can take advantage of to get Windows 7:

Screaming Deals: We worked together with our partners to introduce a series of limited-time offers with great deals on hardware, software, upgrades, support, and other options. New offers will be released daily and available for the next 7 days on Windows.com (site goes live tomorrow – stay tuned for link!) as well as through participating retail and OEM partners. These “7 Days of Windows 7” offers are available in the U.S. only (other countries have specific deals as well). Tomorrow is Day 1 and those offers will include:

• Best Buy Bundle: HP Laptop, Desktop PC with monitor, Netbook, wireless router and set-up by Geek Squad for $1,199. For the price of one average Mac, you can outfit your entire family with 3 great Windows 7 PCs and a home network!
• Dell: Save more than $100 on a Dell Studio XPS13
• Gateway: All-in-one Acer Gateway ZX6800 23" for $899

Buy a PC - Get a Discounted Upgrade for another PC: Customers who buy a PC with Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate will be able to purchase a discounted copy of Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate to upgrade an existing Windows PC. For people wanting to add a 2nd or 3rd PC in their home (and take advantage of HomeGroup) this is the perfect deal. This offer will run through January 2nd, 2010 and be available in Germany, UK, Czech Republic, Greece, Slovakia, Poland, Latvia, Hungary, U.S., Canada, Denmark, France, New Zealand, Australia.

Windows 7 Family Pack: The Windows 7 Family Pack is also available today while supplies last. Customers can buy 3 licenses of Windows 7 Home Premium for one low price – for the U.S. it’s available for $149.99. The Windows 7 Family Pack is available in the U.S., Japan, Canada, Germany, UK, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Ireland, Luxembourg, Sweden. One of my favorite features in Windows 7 today is HomeGroup. And with the Windows 7 Family Pack, you can truly take advantage of this feature for easy sharing of your music, pictures, video, and document libraries with the Windows 7 PCs in your home, as well as your Xbox 360.

Windows 7 Student Offer: If you are a student (an .edu email address is required), you can upgrade to Windows 7 at the LOWEST PRICE offered, $29.99 in the U.S. This offer runs through January 3rd, 2010 for US, Canada, France, Germany, Korea, Mexico and UK and March 31st, 2010 for Australia.

UPDATE: For more information on the Windows 7 Student Offer, click here.

One more thing… How would you change the world? We have a contest running asking folks to submit an idea they have on how they would use Windows 7 to help their local community. Record a video of yourself explaining your idea and submit it here on the 7 Ways to Change the World website. You have until November 11th to submit your video. The 7 people with the best submissions, as chosen by our judges, will each win a new PC running Windows 7. Each winner's chosen (eligible) community organization will receive a $7,000 grant.

Today, Windows 7 controls my home entertainment experience in my living room. It does so through Windows Media Center. I am using the same setup I blogged about here in 2007 with Windows 7 and it’s an amazing experience. Because of how well it works for me, I wanted to highlight 7 great things you can do with Windows Media Center in Windows 7. Windows 7 can easily be the center of your home entertainment experience just like it is with mine.

#1: Watch Live TV on your Windows 7 PC.

If your Windows 7 PC has a TV tuner, you can use Windows Media Center to watch, pause, and rewind live TV directly on your PC! If you’re Windows 7 PC doesn’t have a TV tuner, you can always add one – they are quite inexpensive.

Windows Media Center in Windows 7 supports High Definition TV (HDTV) capabilities as well. Earlier last month, we announced support for Switched Digital Video (SDV). We also announced that customers will now be able to add a digital cable tuner with CableCARD support to their PC. Previously, digital cable tuners with CableCARD support were only available on new PCs from OEMs that supported the configuration. Digital cable tuners with CableCARD support differ from standard TV tuner cards as they support digital cable through “CableCARDs” rented from your cable provider for digital cable channels. Assuming you have the right subscription, this enables you to access the full line-up of channels offered by your cable provider, including the premium channels.

There are also TV tuner cards that support “over-the-air” HDTV (ATSC) with an antenna as well as Clear QAM.

#2: Turn your Windows 7 PC into a DVR (Digital Video Recorder)!

Windows Media Center lets you schedule recordings of TV shows and movies. You can even schedule to record all instances (new episodes) of your favorite TV show! Windows Media Center also makes it very easy to view all your recorded content.

I talked about HDTV and the use of digital cable tuners with CableCARD support above. Microsoft and CableLabs are working together to allow people with digital cable tuners with CableCARD support more portability with their recorded digital cable TV. Recordings that are marked as “copy freely” (CF) will now be able to play on other PCs and portable devices.

#3: Easily find the TV shows and movies that you want to watch.

Windows Media Center has great search capabilities built-in so you can easily find all your favorite TV shows and movies. This makes it easier to schedule recordings.

#4: Access all your personal media in one place - no matter where it is.

Windows Media Center brings in all your digital media– photos, movies, music, and recorded TV shows – into one place. Windows Media Center also takes advantage of HomeGroup in Windows 7 and allows you to access digital media content from other PCs!

With recorded digital cable TV content marked as CF – you can share this content throughout your home network of Windows 7 PCs using HomeGroup (see #2 above). You can even access it when you are away from home with Remote Media Streaming in Windows 7.

#5: Track your favorite sports, players, and leagues.

If you’re a sports nut, you can use Windows Media Center to track your favorite teams and leagues. Windows Media Center lets you track scores, players, and leagues natively within Windows Media Center. You can also see quickly jump to sports on “now” and check sports coming on “later” in Windows Media Center too.

#6: Access your recorded TV and digital media where you want: on the PC or on the TV.

Windows 7 supports a variety of high end displays including HDTVs. You can connect your PC to your HDTV and use Windows Media Center to watch and view all your media. Of course this works with a standard PC monitor too. But because Windows 7 makes it easy to share your digital media, you can have 1 PC connected to your HDTV in your home for Windows Media Center and bring in content from all PCs on your home network to that single PC connected to your HDTV. You could also use the Extender for Windows Media Center technology built into your Xbox 360 to access the same Windows Media Center menu you are used to using on your PC.

#7: Watch movies and TV episodes instantly from Netflix in Windows Media Center in Windows 7.

Watch streaming “Instant Play” movies and TV shows from Netflix! Also add movies to your DVD queue if “Instant Play” is not available. Full control of your Netflix account right from Windows Media Center!

I hope these 7 great things about Windows Media Center give you some great ideas on how to bring your home entertainment together using 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
  

Most people buy a PC preinstalled with the edition of Windows that meets their unique needs. However, for some customers their needs may change over time.

With Windows Anytime Upgrade (or WAU), we make it super easy and convenient for the small number of customers who’s PC needs evolve to need a higher edition of Windows 7.

There are a couple of specific situations where we think WAU will prove useful:

Windows 7 Starter to Windows 7 Home Premium: $79.99

A customer may purchase a netbook thinking they would use primarily it for email. Over time, they find they are using that netbook as their primary every-day PC. That person decides they want their netbook to do more. If the netbook is running Windows 7 Starter (or Windows 7 Home Basic in select markets), WAU makes it super easy to upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium. Moving to Windows 7 Home Premium will allow that customer to take advantage of features such as Aero Peek and other enhanced functionality in the Windows Taskbar in Windows 7 such as Taskbar Previews. Desktop themes are also enabled and so is Remote Media Streaming.

Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional: $89.99
Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Ultimate: $139.99*

* You’ll note that we’ve reduced the price of moving from Home Premium to Ultimate 12% in the US as compared to Vista pricing

Another case where WAU may come in handy is when a person wants the ability to connect to a business network (a “domain”). Using WAU to move up to Windows 7 Professional enables the customer to take advantage of the ability to join a domain and use Windows XP Mode to run older programs. When using WAU to move to Windows 7 Ultimate, you’ll get everything from the other editions plus BitLocker to keep your USB devices encrypted and secure and the ability to run your PC in any of 35 different languages (via Language Packs).

After Windows 7 is released to market on October 22nd, you will be able to buy a retail package that contains an upgrade key at a store near you for any of the 3 paths I highlighted above.

If you live in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK or the US (13 countries) – you will be able to purchase the upgrade from Microsoft online directly within Windows 7.

Whether you buy a WAU retail package from a store or online directly within Windows 7, the upgrade takes as few as ten minutes. This is because it only requires an upgrade key (no media). Your current programs, files, and settings will remain intact.

For a rundown of the Windows Anytime Upgrade experience, click here.

Now let’s talk about the Windows 7 Family Pack. Last week I confirmed we were doing a family pack for Windows 7 consisting of Windows 7 Home Premium for installation on up to 3 PCs.

Today, most homes have more than one PC in them. When you run Windows 7 on more than one PC on a home network, you can do more with features like HomeGroup. HomeGroup allows people to connect to PCs on their network and share files, music and photos with the whole family – easily. The Windows 7 Family Pack is an easy and affordable way to get all your PCs in your household running Windows 7 through licensing to install Windows 7 Home Premium on up to 3 PCs.

The Windows 7 Family Pack will be available starting on October 22nd until supplies last here in the US and other select markets. In the US, the price for the Windows 7 Family Pack will be $149.99 for 3 Windows 7 Home Premium licenses. That’s a savings of more than $200 for three licenses. This is a great value and we’re excited to be able to offer it to customers.

As of today, I am running the Windows 7 Beta on several different PCs including my laptop, my work PC, and my PC at home, which I upgraded recently to Windows 7 from Windows Vista SP1. (I’ll be outlining the PCs I’m using to test Windows 7 shortly.) I’m all connected with HomeGroup, I’ve got several different Libraries set up, and I’m loving the new Windows Taskbar. I’ve got Windows Media Center recording my favorite TV shows and my Zune 80 syncing up with the Zune software. And things are even better with Windows Live Essentials installed. I find the Windows 7 Beta to be an amazing beta release and I am extremely excited for you to get your hands on it later this week! I’d like to take a moment to share some specifics regarding the Windows 7 Beta that I think are very important for people looking to give Windows 7 a spin.

On January 9th, the Windows 7 Beta will be available for Windows enthusiasts to download via the Windows 7 page on Windows.com. The Windows 7 Beta is going to be available download-only (we’re not sending out physical media) and available for a limited time to the first 2.5 million people who download the beta.

The Windows 7 Beta will be available in English, German, Japanese, Arabic, and Hindi, and each language will be available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions (except Hindi which will only be available in 32-bit). Because the Windows 7 Beta will be offered download-only, it will be provided to you as an ISO image (an .iso file) that you download. After downloading either the 32-bit or 64-bit ISO image of the Windows 7 Beta, you will be required to burn the ISO image to a DVD to install Windows 7. So you want to be sure you have a DVD burner before spending the time downloading the ISO image.

To burn the ISO image of the Windows 7 Beta to DVD, if your PC comes with Nero or Roxio products – you should be able to burn the ISO image to DVD. If you don’t already have DVD burning software on your PC, you can also check out ImgBurn which is free and can be downloaded here.

The Windows 7 Beta only supports Windows Vista SP1 to Windows 7 upgrades. So if you intend to do an upgrade – be sure it is on a PC running Windows Vista with Service Pack 1. We are not yet announcing anything regarding finalized upgrade paths for Windows 7.

The Windows 7 Beta will be only available in one edition, which is roughly equivalent the Ultimate edition of Windows Vista.

Also, another important thing to keep in mind is that the Windows 7 Beta will expire on August 1st, 2009.

I also need to emphasize that this is a beta of an unreleased operating system. Be sure to backup all your important data. As much as the Windows 7 Beta completely rocks, part of the beta process is discovering bugs and reporting those bugs. Some of those bugs could possibly lead to data loss. I tend to be a risk-taker myself and have gone all-out with the Windows 7 Beta by putting it on almost all my PCs both at work and at home, but not everyone should do this. I recommend using Windows Vista’s Backup and Restore features to ensure your information is backed up before trying out the Windows 7 Beta. Click here for several methods of backing up your data in Windows Vista.

The Windows 7 Beta is targeted toward the enthusiast crowd – people excited and knowledgeable with technology. If you don’t quite understand much of what I’ve written above, it is probably best you don’t try to install the Windows 7 Beta.

If you are an IT Professional, you can visit the Springboard Series for Windows 7 on TechNet (see the Windows 7 tab) on January 9th to sign up for the Windows 7 Beta but also can also get access to dynamic resources including video walkthroughs and the new Windows 7 forums.

I’ve gotten the chance to play around with the Windows 7 pre-beta build and I feel like a kid in a candy store. There are many new features that I personally am excited about that I hope to blog about over time. To kick things off I wanted to discuss the several new features in Windows 7 that make managing and sharing your files on your home network a much easier experience than ever before. Using Windows 7’s Libraries along with its HomeGroup network sharing feature, I was able to share content with other PC users on my home network. I’m going to go into detail on my experience with Libraries and setting up a HomeGroup on my network with Windows 7 to illustrate these new features for you. And believe it or not… it all starts with the relatively minor changes made to the naming of folders within User Profiles in Windows 7.

One of the things you’ll notice first is the User Profile folder structure in Windows 7 has changed a little bit from what was seen in Windows Vista.

In Windows Vista: Documents, Downloads, Photos, Videos, and Music

In Windows 7: Personal Documents, Personal Downloads, Personal Photos, Personal Videos, and Personal Music.

The naming also changed in the Public User Profile: Public Documents, Public Downloads, Public Photos, Public Videos, and Public Music.

These folder structure changes were made to accommodate a new Windows Explorer feature in Windows 7 called Libraries. Libraries exist in the Navigation Pane of Windows Explorer which has been updated for Windows 7. In Windows 7, users are given Libraries that consist of multiple “library locations” or folders from both their User Profile and Public User Profile.

For example: the Documents Library in Windows 7 consists of your Personal Documents folder under your profile and the Public Documents folder – or 2 “locations”.

By default, my Libraries consisted of the following folders:

· Documents: Personal Documents and Public Documents

· Downloads: Personal Downloads and Public Downloads

· Music: Personal Music and Public Music

· Photos: Personal Photos and Public Photos

· Videos: Personal Videos and Public Videos

There is a very specific reason why each of these Libraries consists of a Personal folder and Public folder. It ties in with HomeGroup and specific permissions which I will talk about very soon… keep reading ;-)

When I view the Documents Library – it displays all files and folders from any folder I have included in this Library in a single Windows Explorer view.

In the above screen shot, the EXAMPLE folder in the red box is a folder in the Public Documents folder while the rest of the folders are from my Personal Documents folder.

To add locations to a Library, all I needed to do was hit the location button in the top right-hand corner. To create custom Libraries, all I needed to do was right-click on “Libraries” in the Windows Explorer Navigation Pane and choose “New”. I decided to try adding a folder from my Windows Home Server to my Document Library. I had a folder full of documents on my Windows Home Server that would be perfect for my Documents Library. To my excitement I was easily able to add the folder to my Documents Library just fine. So Network locations such as Windows Home Servers are in for “library locations”!

Either way – creating custom Libraries or adding folders to a Library are very easy.

These Libraries can easily be shared with other people on your Home network through a new network sharing feature in Windows 7 called HomeGroup.

In creating a HomeGroup I was also able to choose which Libraries I would like to share out to the HomeGroup.

A few things I discovered about HomeGroup when setting a HomeGroup up:

· In order to setup a HomeGroup, my PC’s Network Location needed to be set as “Home” in Network and Sharing Center. Just like in Windows Vista, a Network Location for networks your PC is connected to can be a Home network, Work network, or Public where Windows automatically applies certain settings to keep your PC safe (for example if you are on a Public network, Windows locks down your PC appropriately so you aren’t sharing important files with the world).

· If a HomeGroup had already been created on PC on this network – instead of asking me to create a HomeGroup, it would have asked me to join a HomeGroup and which Libraries I would like to share.

· There can be only 1 HomeGroup per Home network as far as I can tell and each HomeGroup is password-protected.

· Users on any Windows 7 PC) on my Home network can join the HomeGroup and are required to enter a password for that HomeGroup they are joining. This is great because if you have friends come over to your place – they can’t just jump on to your HomeGroup and access your stuff.

· Once a Windows 7 PC is joined to HomeGroup – any user on that Windows 7 PC can participate in HomeGroup. You can continue to access files from a User on a Windows 7 PC even if a different user is logged in to the PC.

So how does Personal Folders VS Public Folders tie in with HomeGroup?

I discovered that when sharing Libraries into my HomeGroup, the Public folders and Personal folders within the Libraries have different read/write permissions and are completely customizable.

In general, Public folders have read AND write permissions – meaning users in your HomeGroup can add and remove files to the folder.

Personal folders have read-only access. For files in your Personal folders within a Library – users in your HomeGroup can only view them – not edit, delete, etc.

To add a file to a Library being shared out via HomeGroup, all I needed to do was simply drag the file into the specific Library they want to add it to. That’s it. The file appears in that Library to everyone in the HomeGroup. But when I drag files to a Library someone is sharing in HomeGroup, the files are physically added to the “public” folder and not their “personal folder” (because of the permissions setup I mentioned above).

So let me give you a “real-world” example of how it works.

As you saw in the above screenshot, the user “Bruce Wayne” from the PC named MYUMPC was in my HomeGroup. I decide I want to add a photo to Bruce Wayne’s Photo Library. I dragged and dropped a photo onto his Photo Library. The photo appeared within that Library as it should. When Bruce Wayne checks out his Photo Library, he will see that photo I just added. However because of the read/write permissions of Personal and Public folders – the photo I *just* added to Bruce Wayne’s Photo Library actually sits physically within his Public Photos folder on his PC (the PC named MYUMPC).

Essentially PC users on your HomeGroup can add files to your Libraries but they physically sit in your Public folders on your PC and not your Personal folders. Your personal folders are preserved for only your important data. You don’t want people adding photos to your Personal Photos folder and messing up your photo collection – and the same with your music.

The way that Libraries are set up with the Personal and Public folders allows users to be in control of their personal data. You can choose to let folks in your HomeGroup view your data in your Personal folders within your Libraries or you can completely turn off access to your Personal folders all together giving only access to the Public folders within the Library.

With Windows 7’s new Libraries feature as well as the new HomeGroup feature – I discovered I am more easily in control of my data at the same time am able to easily share things out to people.