Microsoft Corporation, world’s largest IT major announced the availability of its latest operating system (OS), Windows 7 in India. Windows 7 is designed to be more reliable and responsive, delivering a simplified PC experience for consumers. The new Windows 7 supports both 64-bit & 32-bit processors.

Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Microsoft India said, “Proactive engagement and feedback thereof with partners and consumers was fundamental to the development of Windows 7. It has helped deliver what is the highest quality OS in the history of Windows. It enhances the user experience by its sheer simplicity and caters to their connected lives across work and play. We are delighted by the initial reviews from partners and the technology community. Over 90% of testers from around the world have rated it as “good” or “extremely good” and consider Windows 7 to be responsive, simple to use and stable.”

Over 600 new feature ideas for Windows 7 were tested through global quantitative research early in the engineering process, helping Microsoft determine the features that best address consumers’ top needs. Further, Windows 7 saw the largest beta testing program in the history of the industry, with 8 million testers worldwide. The result is an easy to connect, easy to browse and simple to use operating system, requiring less waiting, less clicks, less hassle connecting to devices, less power consumption and less complexity for the consumers.

Features of Windows 7

Snap Feature of Windows 7

Snap is a quick way to resize open windows, simply by dragging them to the edges of your screen. Depending on which edge the user choose—top or bottom, left or right—the window will expand vertically, fill the screen, or you can even position windows side by side. Snap makes reading, organizing, and comparing windows an easy experience.

HomeGroup Feature of Windows 7

HomeGroup enables you to easily share the photos, music, and files on each of the PCs running Windows 7 on your home network. It’s especially handy when you want to share a printer. Moreover, HomeGroup is password-protected so you just set up one password for all your PCs and you’re ready to go. You can decide what gets shared and what stays private, or use “Share with” to decide who you want to share specific folders with. You can also make your files “read only,” so other people can look at (but not change) your stuff. You can join a HomeGroup in any edition of Windows 7, but you can only create one in Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate.

Play To Feature of Windows 7

Play To feature in Windows 7, makes it easy to use your home audio-video system and other networked media devices to play your music, watch videos, and display photos that reside on your PC. Just right-click the tracks you’d like to hear and select Play To—now you’re hearing what you want, where you want it.

Windows Touch Feature of Windows 7

Ever wish you could just point at what you want and move things around with your hand? With a touch-sensitive screen and Windows 7, you can. With Windows 7 and a touch-sensitive screen, you can browse online newspapers, flick through photo albums, and shuffle files and folders at the touch of your finger.
Touch technology has been available in Windows for years. But Windows 7 extends it to every corner of your PC. The Start menu and taskbar now sport larger, fingertip-friendly icons. Familiar Windows 7 programs are also touch-ready. You can even finger paint in Paint!

Windows Touch—available only in the Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate editions of Windows 7—also recognizes multitouch gestures (with the right monitor). Need to zoom in on a picture? Move your fingers apart. Want to right-click on something? Touch it with one finger and tap the screen with a second on the screen.

Aero Shake Feature of Windows 7

Ever need to cut through a cluttered desktop and quickly focus on a single window? Now with Windows 7, you can just click, hold down, and give your mouse a shake. Every open window except that one instantly disappears. Jiggle again—and your windows are back.

Jump Lists Feature of Windows 7

Jump Lists take you right to the documents, pictures, songs, or websites you use most often. To open a Jump List, just right-click a program icon on the Windows 7 taskbar. You can also see Jump Lists for the programs on your Start menu – just click on the arrow next to the program name.

Parental Controls Feature of Windows 7

With Parental Controls in Windows 7, it’s easy to supervise each of your kid’s PC use without having to peek over their shoulders.

For starters, you can decide what times of the day are right for your children and what programs they can use. And if you have games on the computer, it’s really easy to decide what games your kids can play based on the game’s ratings.

With the Parental Controls in Windows Media (available in Windows 7 Home Premium and above), you can also block access to objectionable TV shows and movies.

Availability

Windows 7 is available in six editions, targeted at specific user groups and addressing all segments of the market. The two primary editions are: Windows 7 Home Premium for home consumers and Windows 7 Professional for small and medium sized businesses. Also available in the line-up are Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic (in Emerging Markets only), Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 7 Ultimate.

Price

The FPP pricing for Windows 7 has reduced in the range of 25-35 percent over Windows Vista, for most SKUs. Windows 7 is available at more than 45,000 retailers around the world and in India, all 16 OEMs will bring in more than 100 different Windows 7 PCs within 30 days from today. Globally, more than 17,000 software and hardware companies are building solutions on Windows 7 and over 50,000 developers are enrolled in the Windows Ecosystem Readiness Program. Together, these partners are developing hardware, software and services capable of reaching more than a billion PCs around the world.

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