Touching Windows 7

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
There is a new post over on Microsoft’s Engineering Windows 7 blog today on the topic of what it takes to make Windows “touchable.” Go have a look, it is definitely interesting reading.

While providing this touchable experience, we made sure you are getting the full Windows 7 experience and not a sub-set just for touch. We’ve been asked if we are creating a new Touch UI, or “Touch Shell” for Windows – something like Media Center that completely replaces the UI of Windows with a version that is optimized for touch. As you can see from the beta, we are focused on bringing touch through the Windows experience and delivering optimized touch interface where appropriate.
Click to expand...
 
Nice thread title. I bet you got a chuckle out of making that one. :p
 
I get the impression that its a bit larger than a laptop screen that they were using.
Does anyone know, if they were using a surface prototype, or was it something as simple as an HP touchsmart?

I don't know of any large format capacitive touchscreens, so I can't imagine anything else.

Or am I just wrong, and they are using a multi-touch capable tablet (dell xt? maybe?)
 
OMG .... we have come a long way.
Remember the 80286 PCs ? With green color screen only. 4MB DIMM was all you could afford.
And the 640kB barrier ? ... and the CPU had 20MHz, WOW I get a speed rush orgasm kind of feeling now.

Well, anyway ... is Windows 7 going to fully support SSDs ?
 
OMG .... we have come a long way.
Remember the 80286 PCs ? With green color screen and 4MB DIMM was all you could afford.
And the 640kB barrier ... and the CPU had 20MHz, WOW I get a speed rush orgasm kind of feeling now.

Well, anyway ... is Windows 7 going to fully support SSDs ?
 
A wall mounted touch screen monitor / built in PC with this would be amazing for some of the things you can do.... an HTPC for media playing of music would be nifty

I love what they've done with Win 7 so far
 
A touch shell for launching only touch-specific applications would not meet customers’ needs – there would be too much switching between “touch” mode and Windows applications. Instead, we focused our efforts on augmenting the overall experience so that Windows works great with touch.
Click to expand...

I REALLY love that part. That's very good to hear. The fact that they're not adding some touch UI as an "extra" speaks a lot. It seems to me that they're truly trying to innovate and make the touch experience go right along side the keyboard/mouse experience in a natural way.

It's looking pretty good so far!
 
I get chills thinking about people putting their greasy fingers all over my monitor. A touch screen interface does not appeal to me at all. :(
 
You'd rather have a greasy hand all over your keyboard and mouse?

Think about how easy it is to clean a screen as opposed to a keyboard and mouse. I think in the end a touchscreen world will be cleaner, because it'll promote more regular cleaning. It'll be like wiping your butt, it'll get more effortless and second nature as time goes by
 
and of course if we ever start using three shells after a #2 then the bathroom tissue paper industry could rebrand for touchscreens.
 
Youn said:
You'd rather have a greasy hand all over your keyboard and mouse?

Think about how easy it is to clean a screen as opposed to a keyboard and mouse. I think in the end a touchscreen world will be cleaner, because it'll promote more regular cleaning. It'll be like wiping your butt, it'll get more effortless and second nature as time goes by
Click to expand...

Install a toilet paper dispenser next to your TV ;)
 
Uh-oh, I see pinch-to-zoom, and scrolling momentum. Hope they licensed those patents correctly, because if not, here comes the lawsuits from Apple. ;)

It's too bad though that these are only available in apps written with the very latest Windows Touch APIs. Legacy apps only get scrolling rigged back into them, and nothing else. I forsee another storm of consumer backlash because their 10 year old Win9x app won't work with multitouch, and I also forsee another round of "you'll have to upgrade to the next major version for $99" from all the major software companies. :p
 
So when will we see screens to support this that are not integrated in a PC like the HPs touchsmarts??
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top