Microsoft outlines Windows 7 RC changes

The latest post on Microsoft’s Engineering Windows 7 blog highlights some of the changes that have been made to the Windows 7 OS between beta 1 and RC.

In all thirty six changes are outlined in all. Let’s take a look at some of the more important changes.

* Aero Peek can be triggered via Windows Flip (ALT+TAB)
This one makes a lot of sense. Sure, Peek (which lets you see the desktop) is interesting, but it felt kinda pointless. Now it feels vaguely practical.



* Windows Logo + <#> keyboard shortcut
In Windows 7 the taskbar and quick launch bar have been combined, and now this new keyboard shortcut gives you access to both shortcuts and programs that are running.
* Taskbar scaling
More space for taskbar buttons at various screen resolutions.
800×600
Large icons - 10
Small icons - 15
1024×768
Large icons - 15
Small icons - 22
1280×1024
Large icons - 20
Small icons - 29
1600×1200
Large icons - 26
Small icons - 39
* Variety of touch-related tweaks
Touch technology isn’t all that big a deal right now, but is betting that over the lifespan of Windows 7 it’s going to become increasingly important. Tweaks include a multi-touch keyboard, multi-touch right-click and drag/drop support.
* Auto-locking without screen saver
I don’t know how many years I’ve waited for this ability!
* Native .MOV support
No need for QuickTime to play back .MOV files. Nice!
* Various performance tweaks
Not much details on these … I’m guessing these are minor tweaks and general tightening up of the code.