At Staples, we’re glad to be able to offer the power and impressive new features of Windows 7 to our customers. The ability to find files in only two clicks, or to start up and shut down quickly, will make day-to-day computing so much easier. However, we want customers to be able to continue to enjoy the features of Windows 7 just as much after six months as they do on the very first day. That’s why we are on a quest to remind people that PC maintenance is just as important to software performance as routine oil changes are to keeping cars running smoothly.

As people spend more time online and doing work, they should be conducting preventative maintenance every 3-6 months, depending on the age and usage of the computer. With all of the impressive media management features in Windows 7, we expect customers to be even more active with storing and sharing photos, music, games and entertainment. But if customers do not take proper steps toward safeguarding their PCs, they won’t be able to really get the most out of the new operating system.

While Staples EasyTech service provides a range of tech services at our stores, anyone can follow some simple steps at home to keep any computer, and Windows 7, running smoothly:

• Have an antivirus solution and keep it up to date.
• Use Windows Disk Cleanup to safely remove any temporary files from your hard drive.
• Store computers in a well-ventilated area and be sure to clean out any dust or dirt that has accumulated inside the computer case.
• Check for Windows Updates. Periodically visit Windows Update to download any security patches and drivers that are available for your computer.
• Back up digital files, music and photos on an external hard drive.

Look, most drivers are not experts when it comes to what’s happening under the hood of their car, and we really need to think about PCs in a similar way. Put a reminder on your calendar twice a year to spend an hour on your PC maintenance so you can continue to enjoy the media and performance capabilities of the new Windows 7.

Bob MacDonald,
Vice President of Technology Services, Staples

The day we’ve all been waiting for—as hardware vendors, software developers and consumers—is finally here! And no one is more excited than all of us at ASUS, as it marks the culmination of the collaborative and proprietary work we've been putting into developing Windows 7 products.

Our product development team has been keeping close pace with our counterparts over in Microsoft ever since the inception of the Windows 7 project. Our mission from the outset was simple: to deliver a unique Windows 7 experience. We’ve stayed true to that purpose throughout, and our customers can be assured that ASUS products aren’t just seamlessly compatible and in perfect synergy with the new operating system, they are also designed to enhance and extend the overall Windows 7 experience.

As an example, I’d like to call some attention to the key innovations we’ve introduced to ASUS notebooks running Windows 7: FastBoot and Turbo33. Available on many of ASUS’ notebook lines, such as the new UL Series and ROG (Republic of Gamers) Series, these features work in perfect concert with—and build upon—the functionality and capabilities in Windows 7.

FastBoot is an exciting feature on ASUS notebooks running Windows 7. Through our close collaboration with Microsoft, we’ve managed to tweak our hardware such that notebooks with FastBoot can boot up to 40% faster* than similarly-spec’ed notebooks without the technology. Boot up times can be as low as 30 seconds*.

The other technology I’d like to highlight is called Turbo33. I’m not at liberty to reveal the ‘secret sauce’ behind this remarkable technology, but ASUS notebooks with Turbo33 will allow users to enjoy exceptionally smooth video playback and online video streaming, as well as rock-solid stability when engaging in processor-intensive multitasking.

These technologies have been an absolute joy to design and implement, and it has been particularly rewarding witnessing how effectively they enhance the overall Windows 7 experience. But rest assured, we won't be stopping here. If there's one thing ASUS is known for, it’s our constant desire to improve the status quo. The promise of innovation is something that customers can always count on us to deliver upon—and the same will be true for all ASUS products that run on, or support, Windows 7.

We also expect the launch of Windows 7 to usher in a new golden age of gaming on the PC platform, and are poised to provide the best hardware for all types of gamers. Over the years, our ROG brand has forged a formidable reputation in the gaming arena, first with our top-performing gaming motherboards and graphics cards, then our aggressively spec’ed gaming notebooks.

ROG products stand apart because we’ve designed them around the needs, preferences and gameplay styles of the best gamers today. We’ve gained these insights by engaging gamers at many levels and on many fronts. ASUS, for example, supports some of the biggest eSports and LAN party events in the world. Just this year, we participated in 62 World GameMaster Tournament (WGT) events around the world, reaching 4,004,892 gamers in total. We were also involved in DreamHack Winter, Sweden; ASSEMBLY, Finland; GamesCon, Germany; and Campus Party, Spain which drew over 10,000, 3,500, 245,000 and 6,500 gamers respectively.

We are also strongly committed to supporting online gaming communities. We have an ongoing collaboration with ESL, the biggest online game portal in the Europe with over 35,000 active players. We cooperate closely with top game publishers worldwide as well, including Blizzard, Ubisoft and EA. We were a Platinum Sponsor at Blizzcon09 earlier this year—a two-day event that drew 30,000 visitors—and had a solid presence at Quakecon09 which saw over 7,000 attendees.

Through the stress testing, surveys and focus groups we conduct through these events and initiatives, we are able to take away a wealth of useful and actionable knowledge—knowledge that we’ve used to make our products better. Our ROG Windows 7 solutions are the ultimate realization of all the gaming expertise we’ve accrued to date.

I’d like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to Microsoft. Windows 7 is an amazing operating system, and things will only get more exciting from here on. On ASUS’ part, you have our assurance that we’ll keep racking our brains to conceive the most meaningful and relevant products, technologies and features for today’s savvy consumers and avid gamers.

Tony Chen
Vice president of ASUS System Business Group

* System performance is subject to system configuration. This data is based on a comparison between a FastBoot-optimized ASUS notebook running 64-bit Windows 7 and an identically-spec’ed notebook without FastBoot running 32-bit Windows Vista. For detailed test results, please visit http://event.asus.com/2009/nb/disclaimer/win7/.

Today’s launch is something Corel’s software teams have been looking forward to for many months. Windows 7 and Windows Touch are the most exciting things we’ve seen in computing for a long time.

To coincide with the launch of Windows 7, Corel has released two all-new products that re-invent the typical menu-driven user experience, offering consumers more expressive and interactive creative environments. Engaging and dramatically different UI designs let users get the most out of Windows 7 by providing a more natural way of interacting with your PC. It’s all about removing barriers to creativity. Nothing gets between you and your inspiration.

Windows Touch has given our software teams the opportunity to push the limits of user experience. Sometimes computing can feel a bit detached – you sit at your computer, input info with your keyboard and mouse, and see the results displayed on screen. But with our new interface designs and Windows Touch, the computing experience gets an entirely new personal dimension, solidifying the PC’s place as the creative hub of the home.

Watch the video called “A new kind of software” at www.corel.com/windows7 to see Corel’s user experience designer, Jennifer Fraser, explain how Windows 7 and Windows Touch impacted our software design. Jennifer discusses how this amazing new OS offered Corel’s development team the opportunity to offer new experiences that foster creativity and build stronger connections between users and their content, whether it’s a painting, family snapshot or home movie. Jennifer explains our overall approach to designing consumer creative products and gives a quick glimpse at two of our new Windows Touch-enabled products, Corel Digital Studio 2010 and Corel Paint it! Touch, which was announced today.

With our long history of working closely with Microsoft, particularly around the introductions of new operating systems, we speak from experience when we say that they’ve really got it right with Windows 7. This new platform offers unprecedented power and stability, enabling Corel to deliver products that help customers create, connect and interact with their home PC in ways never before possible.

Joe Roberts
Executive Vice President – Products

Just moments ago, we launched a social media “hub” for Windows 7 on Windows.com in celebration of launch tomorrow. This hub is designed to highlight what our customers are saying about Windows 7. It does this by pulling content from all over the web (via tweets, blog posts, etc.) of people talking about Windows 7 and bringing it all to one central location so you can see what everyone is saying about Windows 7.

Note: To ensure the content and conversations we’re pulling from the web is relevant to Windows 7 (and of course appropriate), we moderate what gets put up there.

If you’re going to be tweeting (posting on Twitter) about Windows 7, I encourage you to use the following hashtags (if you don’t know what hashtags on Twitter are, click here):

• #Win7: Use this in place of “Windows 7” or add to the end of any tweet about Windows 7.
• #WinLive: Use this place of “Windows Live” or add to the end of any tweet about Windows Live.
• #WinWin7: For our several fun giveaways we have going for our Twitter followers (US only, employees are not eligible), tweets tagged with #winwin7 relate to the contests. See Contest Rules here.
• #win7tip: Use this in any tweet sharing a Windows 7 tip or trick.
• #igotWin7: Use this tag to share once you get a copy of Windows 7.
• #win7meetup: Use this tag when tweeting about the Launch Parties or Meetup initiatives.

We continue to look for ways to include our customers and highlight real conversations both during launch and long after GA. To learn more about how the social hub works check Marty Collins’ blog post here.

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.

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!