When it comes to optimizing and really advancing the personal entertainment experience on the PC, Microsoft and Dolby Laboratories share a history of improving the integrity of audio playback. The collaboration between the two companies started when they began working together to enhance audio delivery for the Xbox in 2001. After this design was completed, Microsoft extended its usage of Dolby audio technology in Windows Media Center. This work continued with Windows Vista, which was launched worldwide in January 2007. The evolution of these shared efforts is realized in Windows 7 today.

Windows 7 builds on past collaboration by adding next-generation Dolby Digital Plus technology to offer high-quality multichannel audio. Available in Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate, Dolby Digital Plus brings home theater–quality audio to the PC, improving the listening experience of music, movies, and TV.

When it comes to the small, discreet speakers built into a PC or laptop, how can audio really be optimized? Dolby Digital Plus, a multichannel audio standard for DVDs and select HD broadcasts worldwide, is a high-efficiency, next-generation audio codec that maintains the quality of Dolby Digital at a lower data rate and is fully compatible with all current Dolby Digital A/V receivers. From the movie and music producer point of view, this means that Dolby Digital Plus offers more channels and better compression, making it easier to create higher quality content at lower bit rates to experience on the PC.

Dolby Digital Plus is already the broadcast audio standard for HDTV services in Europe. France is currently using Dolby Digital Plus, with Poland and other countries following closely. Users in these countries watching streaming broadcast content on their computers get to experience next-generation sound.

Microsoft’s diligence in working closely with Dolby engineers to fully enable the PC to be a more sophisticated, dynamic entertainment device is evidence of the company’s broad vision and steadfast commitment to revolutionizing the role of the PC. The next generation of PC enthusiasts can enjoy their computers as their primary home entertainment device—and Dolby Digital Plus will play an important role in that experience.

Spinal Tap fans will recall the restaurant scene in which David St. Hubbins’s interfering girlfriend, Jeanine, informs the band that their album wasn’t “mixed right” because it wasn’t mixed in “Dob-l-ey.” We may be biased, but we tend to agree with that statement. Content is never quite right without Dolby audio technology. Fortunately, PCs with Windows 7 will never have that problem.

To check out the latest on Dolby Digital Plus in Windows 7—including Dolby videos and a dedicated Windows 7 web page—visit Dolby.com and Audiodolby.com. For a complete Dolby PC demo and other PC videos, visit www.audiodolby.com/#/motion/pc. For press releases and news about Dolby technologies, visit investor.dolby.com/releases.cfm.

Robin Selden
Senior Vice President, Marketing, Dolby

Intel and Microsoft have been collaborating for more than 20 years. The day Microsoft launched Windows Vista; we had already been collaborating on Windows 7. The joint team quickly grew to several hundred engineers. Last week, the work we did together became a reality. While marrying Intel’s future Intel Core processors with Microsoft’s latest operating system was quite possibly the biggest undertaking to date for the two companies, there was a very short list of top priorities from users.

First, make notebooks run longer (“I want to watch the whole DVD on the airplane.”). Second, make it run everything faster (“I want to start work when I turn it on and don’t want that DVD, encryption or anything else to slow it down.”) So, Microsoft and Intel set to work.

A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to show some journalists what our engineers had come up with as a result of the collaboration. The resulting stories provide a good overview of some of the unique advances that the collaboration achieved to improve PCs.

Don’t we all hate it when the latest blockbuster we brought along for a long plane ride drains the laptop battery right at the climax. Of course, the same is true of other mobile situations – catching up at coffee shops, sharing photos and videos with friends, comparing prices while shopping – where plugging in is either a hassle or impossible.

To get to the movies’ credits, the team optimized resource utilization throughout the system. Devices were aggressively powered down, busses shut off when possible and Intel processors were kept in their Deep Power Down state longer and more often. The new Microsoft Windows 7 timer coalescing feature, which minimizes the time a processor is running in high gear, to take advantage of Intel Deep Power Down Technology is a good example of how we worked together to optimize our products. By applying such power saving techniques throughout the system and reducing resource utilization Microsoft and Intel engineers were able to reduce power usage of a Windows 7 laptop nearly 20 percent over an identical laptop running Windows Vista SP2. That gained an additional 1.4 hours of battery life, enough extra power to blow by the credits and see all of the special features.

Getting computers to do things faster is something Microsoft and Intel have been doing for a couple of decades. However, with Windows 7 and Intel’s new Core processors rolling out at roughly the same time, the team saw the opportunity to really put rocket engines on PCs. Possibly the most significant performance advancement is enabling the Windows 7 kernel to intelligently manipulate threads in the recently improved Intel Hyper-Threading Technology. The kernel scheduler juggles thread connections with respect to such things as logical processor/core relationships, thread-to-core distribution, and parking and unparking second logical processors in cores to match the workload. Also, the Westmere system we showed reporters was equipped with Intel Solid State Drives, reflecting another area of collaboration.

Skip the formal benchmarks. The companies made their point by booting a PC based on an Intel reference design in less than 11 seconds. Actually, that may be too fast for many as it doesn’t allow sufficient time to get a cup of coffee that many of us are used to doing.

OK, I have a vested interest, but with Windows 7 getting such hardy reviews and its optimization for new advances in Intel processors, now seems to me like a pretty good time to buy a new PC.

Joakim Lialias
Microsoft Alliance Manager - Intel

Today I’m excited to unveil our latest new performance machine: Windows 7 and Lenovo Think computers! It’s like showing off your latest high performance sports car at the big race. We’ve spent a lot of time and expertise getting ready to introduce Windows 7 on Lenovo’s Think business computers and now we get to show it off and share how we did it.

You have to analyze your vehicle first in order to improve performance. Lenovo engineers’ efforts began several years ago by analyzing every detail of the Windows Operating System environment, our PCs and software. That gave us a great foundation that determined where to concentrate our efforts. We worked closely with Microsoft to utilize this knowledge during Windows 7 development to improve the overall Windows 7 experience. Microsoft developers did some great things to speed up the operating system such as modifying when and how hard disk activities run to reduce delays to the user. We at Lenovo focused primarily on the computer components and our own ThinkVantage software.

Like a finely tuned race car, it’s not just the engine you worry about. To get optimal performance you need to design performance into all the components from the ground up. For Lenovo this meant improvements in the (suspension) with the computer firmware being aware and skipping unused hardware function tests, we overhauled the (transmission) with performance aware device drivers, ThinkVantage applications re-engineered for (aerodynamics) speed by eliminating background services and running them just when needed, found the best industry applications (tires) and then the entire system (car) was tuned through the system settings to take maximum advantage of all the component improvements.

Now you don’t just enter a race without trying out your design at the track, so we put the Lenovo Think PCs through rigorous testing and internal pilot testing. Our team has run these PCs around the track for more than six months to make sure we are ready.

This isn’t just a race to see how fast you are off the starting line; it is also about endurance and the driving experience. All Lenovo’s performance work also improves the driving experience and extends your track time between fuel stops. By improving the performance we’ve reduced the amount of power consumption which extends battery life, reduces energy consumption and makes our Think computers a leader in green computing. A key contributor is ThinkVantage Power Manger with an easy new power slider and can save up to $71 annually in energy costs on a ThinkCentre M52 desktop running the Lenovo default power mode.

Lenovo announced the Lenovo Enhanced Experience certification program in September, with our performance efforts as a key ingredient to bringing you great new computers with Windows 7. We’ve made great strides including improved boot speed by up to 57 percent and shut down by up to 39 percent on select Think PCs versus non-optimized, identical configuration PCs running Vista and XP. To take advantage of this new experience Lenovo is encouraging customers to migrate from Windows XP to Windows 7 through our Lenovo Enhanced Experience program.

How can Lenovo share this great new racing technology with our business customers? Smaller businesses can easily get the benefit of Lenovo Enhanced Experience for Windows 7 experience by purchasing a new Lenovo Think computer today with Windows 7 ready to go out of the box. Larger companies who create their own unique software image can benefit immediately from firmware, device drivers and ThinkVantage Technology software improvements on new Think computers. For larger companies that want the full Lenovo Enhanced Experience for Windows 7, Lenovo offers a new service where Lenovo engineers use our expertise to performance tune the customer’s software image.

We expect Windows 7 and Lenovo Enhanced Experience to give users the best new computing experience in a decade, and that gives us a higher platform to continue developing the next generations of innovative PC technology.

For more information including a list of Lenovo PCs Enhanced for Windows 7 please visit our Lenovo Enhanced Experience for Windows 7 web page.

Peter Schrady
Vice President & General Manager; Software, Peripherals and Enterprise Products
(And an avid racing enthusiast!)

I had the pleasure of attending our HP press tour to launch many of our new products this month, and let me tell you - across all of our product lines, we’re offering better performing and more visually pleasing desktops than ever before and they’re all Windows 7 ready. You’ll find that we offer a variety of quality desktop PC’s for consumers, small businesses, Enterprise and Public Sector customers – from the stylish HP TouchSmart 600 for the home to our powerful HP Compaq 6000 Pro series for business.

Check out some of the highlights that we shared on the press tour: 

Touch really does make the computing experience come alive. We’ve been innovating in Touch since 1983 when we launched the first touch PC, the HP 150. Fast forward to 2009 and HP is still investing in both hardware and software to help people reduce the complexity in computing. We’ve worked with Microsoft to share HP’s learnings and award-winning touch technology and best practices for integration into Windows 7. The deep collaboration between the companies offers customers the most advanced computing experience they have grown to expect from HP. 

We all know that customers want a great experience, interaction and the total “it was made just for me” feeling when they buy a product. Just recently, I was in a la00rge scale, popular hotel lobby. In a period of about 30 minutes, my husband and several other people walked up to this PC and touched it to start interacting…..not seeing the disclaimer at the bottom of the screen.

That’s right, it said: “THIS IS NOT A TOUCH SCREEN”. To that end, HP is striving to create personal, engaging experiences through applications that you absolutely can touch. The finger is the natural pointing device.  One of my favorite applications that we showcased on the press tour is the HP TouchSmart RecipeBox. In talking with customers, we found that many people have put their PCs in the kitchen.  The TouchSmart RecipeBox lets aspiring chefs discover, explore and learn recipes by voice or touch commands.  It also lets you collect, format and store all your favorites together in a “digital” cookbook that is all yours. 

Not only has HP created specific applications that meet your needs, but you can also see it in the HP TouchSmart software. Partners recognize the PC is a critical piece to the entertainment, communication and multi-media equation and have developed applications with us that work in the touch environment. There are built-in, interactive tiles with key applications from third parties from the likes of Hulu, Twitter, and Netflix.The Hulu TouchSmart tile provides quick access to Hulu’s vast library of hit TV shows, movies and video clips with the touch of a finger. Users can browse, search and watch their favorite comedies, dramas, sci-fi and web-original shows from nearly 200 leading content companies. In addition, users with Hulu.com accounts also can access their queue, subscriptions and viewing history.

Touch is not limited to consumers; there are a number of businesses who are investigating or using HP TouchSmarts already to deliver a better experience to their customers.  At Compass Bank in Houston, the bank is able to extend more services by providing “virtual loan officers” by using TouchSmarts with Webcams at their banks but saving costs by locating the loan officers centrally; they provide a unique, personalized experience to each customer and get the forms submitted and approved in less time. Priscilla of Boston is helping their customers find the perfect wedding dress using HP TouchSmarts (if you’ve ever been married, you know how the dress choice is a very “personal” decision).  Lastly, Sheraton Hotels are using TouchSmart PCs to provide a customized experience for their patrons with immersive touch technology that brings interaction, connectivity and play to the Link@Sheraton – the heart of the Sheraton brand’s new lobby experience. We’ve even launched a new product line of Digital Displays including the 42” HPLD4200tm Interactive Digital Sign which brings touch to more people in more places (hospitality, education, and point-of-sale). 

Besides Touch, HP has expanded on the Compaq Portfolio and brand for the home and business PC user. The Compaq portfolio delivers great design, strong performance and reliability that customers need for ‘just right computing’ at ‘just the right price.’ The Compaq Presario 4010f desktop PC delivers all the productivity of a traditional PC in a sleek, streamlined desktop design. Then there’s the Compaq 500B Series desktop PC which are designed for the budget-conscious small businesses that need PCs that are easy to set up, use and expand. The Compaq 500B and 505B desktop PCs, available with Intel or AMD processors respectively, offer businesses efficient and reliable performance with Windows 7, and configurable hard drives and memory.

Lastly, I wanted to mention this idea of “year of the refresh.” Customers have told us that they have held onto their desktop PCs for 4-5 years. We know the recessions around the world have squeezed budgets. We have heard you ask questions about the environmental impact of the products you buy and how you can manage your costs when it comes to power usage. We know people have been anticipating Windows 7. At HP, we used your feedback and planned for this; we designed a portfolio of products to hit the right price and performance equation for you.  As of today, all of our PC’s are Windows 7 ready. When you’re using your new HP desktop PC at home or work, our testing shows you’ll get up to three times better overall performance because of our HP hardware combined with Windows 7 (when compared to a similar PC from a few years ago.) Boot time is 45 percent faster, suspend time is 50 percent faster and resume time is 90 percent faster. All of these things will help you save time, be more efficient and have a better PC experience. (The testing was conducted by HP Desktop R&D)

These are just a few of the HP Desktop products that launched in the last month. Be sure to check out all of our cool business products here for business products and here for our home and home office products and upgrade to the PC you deserve.

Anneliese Olson
Director of Desktops for HP

Too many companies today are struggling to make do with fewer technical resources and they are looking to maximize the efficiencies of their technologies in order to reduce costs and business risks. HP is working with Microsoft to address these challenges and give companies the competitive edge they need to differentiate themselves in the marketplace.

Working with Microsoft on the launch of Windows Server 2008 R2, Exchange 2010 and Windows 7 has been an exciting venture for the HP team. HP and Microsoft are continuously building on our expertise in providing customers with an unparalleled technology experience for business-ready technology environments.

Our collaboration with Microsoft on Windows 7 showcases the extensive capabilities and functionality of Windows 7 on HP’s portfolio of PC’s, notebook’s and workstations. The sooner companies adopt Windows 7, the sooner they can start reducing overall support costs- that is why HP is ready to design, plan, migrate, manage and deploy Windows 7. In addition to services, HP Virtual Desktop Infrastructure solutions are helping to control the cost, manage the complexity and improve security of desktop computing with Windows 7. We’ve also been working with Microsoft on unified communications and collaboration solutions so customers can integrate their choice of endpoint devices, including Windows 7 platforms, and connect people seamlessly regardless of technology used.

We’re excited to join forces with Microsoft in their mission to create the most efficient enterprise technologies across the board with Windows Server 2008 R2. HP’s collaboration on Windows Server 2008 R2 is helping customers build a secure, infrastructure that is scalable and adaptable to meet changing business requirements.

With Windows Server 2008 R2, organizations can now make a serious reduction in power consumption and improve consolidation ratios with HP ProLiant G6 servers. HP’s support of Windows Server 2008 R2 provides a unique cost savings by reducing network real estate and improving server consolidation ratio- HP Flex-10 technology reduces network real estate by up to 75% reduces networking costs by up to 66% and reduces power consumption by up to 50% and can help improve virtualization ratios in network constrained environments.

HP provides a significant advantage for Microsoft Exchange 2010, foundational element for a complete, end-to-end unified communications and collaboration infrastructure. With this solution companies can reduce risk by relying on a strong partnership. HP has the broadest base of servers and storage that help reduce power and floor space requirements, lower cost of storage while improving availability with DAS storage and allows for greater choice in deployment options with a broad portfolio of storage solutions.

HP offers a number of services for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, Exchange 2010 and Windows 7. HP VDI standard set of services provides strategy and value workshop, planning and design, implementation and support services. Application Virtualization services help customers with the implementation of server infrastructure and support administration monitoring and management of server based computing servers.

HP is looking forward to the future of Windows Server 2008 R2, Exchange Server 2010 and Windows 7 and we’re excited to be a part of this exciting development with Microsoft.

Meg Shea-Chiles
Director, Microsoft Strategic Alliance, HP Enterprise Business

Last week, embedded GPS chip maker u-blox announced support for Windows 7’s Sensor and Location Platform. Windows 7 has built in “location awareness” using the new Windows Sensor and Location Platform. PCs with u-blox’s AMY-5M chip or their PCI-5S/PCM-5S receiver cards with Windows 7 can now be “location-aware” with u-blox’s new Windows 7 driver available for download here.

There is a u-blox GPS chip inside the Microsoft GPS dongle that ships with Streets and Trips 2009. I went out and grabbed a copy for myself to try out making Windows 7 on my laptop location-aware.

I plugged the dongle in, installed the u-blox Windows 7 driver, and the GPS dongle appeared as a sensor in Windows 7. I of course enabled the u-blox GPS sensor (or location sensor).

Windows 7 utilizes location-awareness in several different ways for the user. The inbox weather gadget is one.

If a person has a location sensor enabled in Windows 7, the “Find location automatically” in the weather gadget settings can be checked. If checked, this will allow the weather gadget to utilize the Sensor and Location Platform to discover your location and display weather from your location. In my case, it accessed my location using the u-blox GPS sensor I have enabled. As you move locations with your laptop, the weather gadget will chain to your current location.

If you have Streets and Trips 2009 and the Microsoft GPS dongle that comes with it, use it to make Windows 7 “location-aware” with the weather gadget.

As more and more laptops PCs come with GPS in them, Windows 7 is designed to take advantage of location natively within the OS. This offers a great experience for people always on the move.

For more information on the Windows Sensor and Location Platform in Windows 7, click here. If you’re a developer, learn how to make your application “location-aware” with Windows 7 with these resources on the Windows Sensor and Location Platform here.