Wrapping up the keynote, Ballmer and another Microsoft executive gave a demo of a futuristic multitouch application for students that made use of many technologies from the company's R&D labs, including automatic document summarizing and highlighting of key points, organizing notes along topical timelines, and collaborating with other students on a Microsoft Surface-type touch-sensitive table. The company will also be releasing two new Halo games in 2009, including Halo Wars, a strategy game that will ship on March 3, and Halo 3: Orbital Drop Shock Trooper. According to Bach, 28 million Xbox consoles have been sold to date, and there are 17 million active users of the Xbox Live service. This OS will include support for Adobe Flash-based apps, including the video players used on many sites, such as YouTube.Īfter Ballmer, Microsoft's Robbie Bach took the stage to tout the company's Xbox 360 and Xbox Live products. Similar interconnectivity already exists between Windows Live and Flickr.Īlso, Dell will be preloading Windows Live Essentials on its computers, replacing the Google Toolbar.īallmer promised a new version of Microsoft's OS for smartphones, Windows Mobile, to come in the first quarter of 2009. The company announced several Windows Live partnerships, including one with Facebook, which will allow Facebook users to share content that they've uploaded into their Facebook accounts with their Windows Live accounts.

Windows 7 is only one part of Microsoft's three-pronged strategy to provide software for what Ballmer called the 'three screens' - PCs, phones and TVs. The company did not announce the exact date of Windows 7's commercial release. This is the only public beta of Windows 7, a company spokesperson confirmed. And it will be svelte enough to run on a netbook with as little as 1GB of RAM and a 1GHz processor, Microsoft has promised. In addition, the OS will have an updated Taskbar, new animated desktop effects, context-sensitive menus and a smarter desktop search tool. Microsoft showed off Windows 7's support for multitouch interfaces, simplified home networking, and easier management of peripheral devices such as cell phones and digital cameras. Microsoft promises that the new OS will have faster startup and shutdown times, fewer security alerts, and will provide better power management leading to improved battery life on laptops. Windows 7 has been widely anticipated since developers got the first glimpse of it at a Microsoft conference earlier this year.

Windows 7 beta downlaod