Windows 7 Screen Shots (Images)

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Windows 7 Beta:Available to the public Friday for download

Microsoft is busily promoting Windows 7, its next operating system and successor to the much-maligned Vista.

At the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has announced a free public beta of the new OS, which reportedly will be less of a resource hog than Vista and may even run well on netbooks. The Windows 7 public beta is reportedly "feature complete" and will expire on Aug. 1, 2009.

Microsoft says Windows 7 is a leaner, stripped-down OS that will require as little as 1GB of memory. Then again, it's fair to be skeptical here. Vista has the same memory requirement but runs sluggishly on systems with 1GB of RAM.

But there's more to Windows 7 that faster performance, Microsoft says. There are plenty of under-the-hood changes, including a revamped Vista kernel and a less-annoying User Account Control that you can configure to post fewer security warnings. The Windows interface will undergo some changes as well.

Windows 7 may even bring a slight shift away from the traditional, desktop-oriented operating system to one that incorporates elements of Microsoft's upcoming Azure "cloud" OS.

Whatever Windows 7 brings, XP fans may remain stubbornly loyal to their OS. Dell continues to offer XP to its customers, albeit for a surcharge, and user interest in switching from Vista to XP remains high.
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Gates and Ballmer debut Windows 7(Demo and Pics)

6:27 - Announcer welcomes Les Hinton, CEO of Dow Jones. Applauding Walt and Kara, discussing the "change in ownership,".

6:30 - Welcoming out Walt and Kara... aaand here they are.

6:31 - Mossberg: "It's been a turbulent year for a lot of these companies." Swisher: "It's been a big news year." Indeed it has.

6:36 - They want to have a Bill + Steve redux, except this time the Steve is Ballmer, not Jobs. Playing the Gates retirement video from CES.

6:43 - Stiiiiiiiill playing the video. It's still pretty good though, and they added a few new clips here and there.

6:46 - All done! Mossberg: Ladies and gentlemen, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer!

6:47 - Taking it back to the beginning, what kind of classmate/roommate was Bill in college? "He was a pretty shy guy... quiet, kind of shy, but a certain kind of spark. Especially later in the day, early in the morning. Bill was usually going to bed by the time I was waking up." Bill's talking about how he constantly played hookey.

6:50 - Ballmer talking about how Gates came and went Harvard. Gates: "You can leave and come back!" Say, is that a hint about Bills retirement? Ballmer's talking up his time spent at Procter and Gamble. Mossberg: Was it about then that you tried to hire Steve? Gates: "Not yet..." they were still way early on in the company.

6:53 - Mossberg: Did you wait to finish business school? Ballmer: "This is classic. Gates calls, 'Hey, what are you doing? Oh, god, too bad you don't have a twin brother or something...' he didn't just come out and say anything. 'Too bad, too bad -- and he hung up!' That was the sales call!"

6:54 - Gates on the early days: "We had so many customers, so many choices about what we could do next. We've always managed the company very conservatively." Talking anecdotally about how early-Microsoft wanted to have enough in the bank to pay its employees for a year if their customers stopped paying. "I had this very conservative view of our financial limits."

6:57 - Ballmer: "I wondered, why did I leave Stanford business school for this?" Eventually Bill gave him the real pitch: "We can put a computer on everyone's desk." Gates: "I needed Steve. I needed the skills he had, I needed a partner." Ballmer: "Bill said, 'Prove we can hire one good guy, and we'll hire 2-18'... and that became our management approach!" Ballmer says Microsoft hedges all its bets, takes all its risks technologically -- "Why take financial risks?"

7:03 - Mossberg: There's this perception that [Bill's] the technology guy, and [Steve's] the sales guy. Is that right? Bill: They've been jointly involved in a lot of crossover stuff, "Steve and I have done all this stuff together." Ballmer: Discussing working on the Windows 1.0 as a project manager. (Remember that infomercial?) "I'm not an engineer!"

7:04 - Swisher: Would you call yourself a businessman? Gates: "Sure. Sales minus costs equals profits. Is there more?" Big laughter. Mossberg: Did it bug you that Bill blew up and became extremely famous? Ballmer: "No. ... It was always clear Bill was the senior partner and I was the junior partner... it's never bothered me at all."

7:08 - Swisher: Do you still get veto on company decisions? Gates: "No." Says he's become the junior partner when he swapped roles with Ballmer. Mossberg asking about Bill's participation these days and going forward. "It's a very different role" he's taking on. Ozzie and Mundie have stepped up, and he's looking to Steve to help pick and choose his future projects.



7:12 - Ballmer: "I want to know what [Bill] thinks." Swisher wants to talk Yahoo! Ballmer gives the quick rundown of events to date. "We are not rebidding for the company -- we reserve the right to do so, but it's not on the docket." Swisher: What are you interested in, in Yahoo? Ha, they're wheeling out a whiteboard for Ballmer to diagram his explanation. Swisher: "This is like crack for him." Ballmer discussing ads, bidders, search, and the scale of it all. "To accelerate scale, it made sense for us to look at Yahoo!'s business."

7:17 - Ballmer says they're still in talks with Yahoo! about a "partnership." Swisher mentions that Ballmer's model of competing with Google is reminiscent of a monopoly. Ballmer gives the who, me? look. Gates: "Guys like us avoid monopolies because we compete!" Naturally, the lot of that exchange was all very tongue-in-cheek.

7:20 - Ballmer: "You need scale, you need business and technology innovation. Large and small... this is a funny marketplace in which to say you're cheaper [than the competition]." Swisher: What's the key element" Ballmer: "The most important thing is that we have a good team and that we're patient." And money -- investment. Ballmer's getting super intense. Mossberg: "You're getting a little scary there." Ballmer: "WELL, YOU GOT THE REAL ME!" Dude, this is Steve, what do you want?

7:24 - Mossberg wants to talk Vista. "Is Vista a failure? Is it a mistake?" Ballmer: "It's not a failure, it's not a mistake. Are there things we'll modify and improve going forward? Sure." Gates is mum, smiling off into the distance. Bet he can't wait to wash his hands of this stuff.

7:26 - Ballmer: "Let me ask Bill..." is Vista up to your expectations compared to '95 and 3.0? Gates: "There's no product that we've ever shipped that was 100% of what I wanted. That's part of the magic of software, people give you feedback... and you get to make a new version. ... We have a culture of 'we need to do better."

7:28 - Ballmer: "There are two unique things: in a lot of our Windows releases in the past, we've always had a second stream. With 95 we were introducing NT in the background... the number one thing people found jarring [with Vista] was that we changed the UI. ... That was ironic." Mossberg: Will you show us a little bit of Windows 7? Ballmer: "Sure! This is the smallest snippet of Windows 7. It's just a small little snippet.'"

7:29 - "This is 'likely to ship within three years of general availability of Vista.'" Demo time! It does multi-touch!

7:35 - They worked with the Surface team on the multi-touch stuff. Microsoft is re-thinking the whole user interface to better accommodate multi-touch for day to day use.

7:37 - Not running on surface. Running on a Dell Latitude XT. They've changed the taskbar, but it was difficult to tell exactly what they did.

7:39 - Swisher and Mossberg: So, what does this represent? Is this the next phase of the way people will do day to day work on their computers? Gates: "We're at an interesting junction... in the years to come, the roles of speech, vision, ink, all of those will become huge. I showed what an intelligent whiteboard would be like."

7:43 - "For the person at home and the person at work, that interaction will change dramatically." Talking about the single-user interfaces we have today. Mossberg: This is 15-18 months from release, your friends in Cupertino probably have one more turn before you get this out the door. They have the iPhone, which is on the market today... is there a risk that the work you're doing here will look like they got there first? Ballmer: "There's a lot in Windows 7, and our goal's got to be, with our hardware partners, to produce fantastic PCs. ... We'll sell 270m PCs a year, and Apple will sell 10m. Apple is fantastically successful, and so are we."

7:45 - Ballmer's talking about Microsoft's "real opportunity" to improve things in the future -- which is another way of saying that things could be better, but there's no real specific commitment to making the Windows experience better.

7:47 - Mossberg's drilling Bill on the Mac vs. PC, Bill's reticent. Ballmer: "Every share point Apple picks up is a share point we don't like. ... But it depends on what your goal is. We like selling 290m units. ... Our model is better." Mossberg: But you CAN'T be happy with this Vista situation? Ballmer: "What's the appropriate response? I kind of like what Bill already said." Gates: "You're kind of repeating yourself." Ouch. Big applause.

7:51 - Q from the internet: Do you feel the unsuccessful pursuit of Yahoo! has tarnished Microsoft at all? Ballmer: "No. ... at very least, people now know we're serious about our online business."

7:53 - Talking about the phone market, Mossberg and Ballmer are debating unit volume between Nokia, RIM, Windows Mobile, Apple. On Android, Ballmer: "It's another person taking another crack at the pie. ... Google comes late, without experience, and no clear business model. ... But we take them seriously."

7:54 - Open floor for Gates as he transitions out of Microsoft: "It probably is the last time I'll get to speak here..." Nawwwwww. "Melinda will be speaking Thursday, you'll hear from here why this will be a fun journey."

7:58 - Audience questions, but unfortunately none have been all that interesting so far.

8:02 - O'Reilly: You set out to put a computer on every desk -- and you achieved that. So do you have a new audacious goal? Gates talking about the future and goals of how Microsoft thinks the future will look. Interactive TV, tablet PC, and so on.

8:08 - Question about apps in the browser, and what that means for the future of software. Ballmer doesn't think it's all or nothing.

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Yahoo shares up on hope of talks with MS, Google deal

Yahoo Inc investors latched on to hopes the company would resume talks with Microsoft Corp or soon forge a deal with Google Inc, sending shares up 6 percent on Tuesday.

Investors are anticipating that Yahoo may give in to pressure from its largest shareholders to reconsider Microsoft's $47.5 billion offer, and noted conciliatory comments from its chief executive, Jerry Yang.

Alternately, Yahoo could strike a pact to outsource some of its search listings to Google to boost its performance. The two are hammering out the details of a potential deal and sharing their plans with antitrust regulators, said a person close to Google.

"There are definitely big accounts stepping in and buying Yahoo on the assumption they will get back to the table," said RBC Capital Markets analyst Ross Sandler. "If they don't, you have one other out, which is the Google outsourcing (deal)."


Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang told media on Monday that he had "mixed feelings" about events over the weekend, when talks broke down, and was still open to negotiations. "If they have anything new to say, we would be open," he said. "I am more than willing to listen."

Microsoft had sweetened its offer to $33 per share, but walked away from talks on Saturday after Yang held out for a price of $37 per share.

Yang's softer stance came as two of Yahoo's largest shareholders told The New York Times they would have been happy with a deal at $34 per share.

"I am extremely angry at Jerry Yang and at the so-called independent board," Gordon Crawford, portfolio manager for Capital Research Global Investors, the largest Yahoo shareholder with some 16 percent of stock, told the newspaper.

Crawford's sway over media companies is legend. In 2002, he mounted a campaign to force the resignation of AOL Time Warner Chairman Steve Case, the architect behind one of the worst corporate mergers of its era. Case resigned in January 2003.

Bill Miller of Legg Mason Inc, which owns about 7 percent of Yahoo shares, said he was disappointed the two companies didn't reach a deal and was surprised Microsoft walked away.

Deadline for proxy fight

In an apparent effort to contain a shareholder revolt, Yahoo on Monday set its annual meeting for July 3. It said May 15 is the deadline to nominate board candidates, giving dissident investors just over a week to launch a proxy fight.

"If you lose the goodwill of some of the largest shareholders, which seems to have happened, we would expect a bloodless coup with Jerry being invited to step aside," said Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Jeffrey Lindsay.

Yahoo shares rose $1.49 cents to $25.86, partially recovering from a 15 percent drop on Monday. Microsoft rose 1.6 percent to $29.54. Despite the renewed optimism, a Microsoft executive cast doubt on the idea that talks could resume.

Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International, told media in London that the company has moved on from Yahoo and will focus on its own strategy to be a leader in Internet services.

Asked if that was the end with Yahoo, he replied, "Absolutely, that's the end of the story. We are moving on because our strategy is very clear."

Google deal

Microsoft courted Yahoo to capitalize on the rapidly growing market for Internet advertising, one that has long been served by Yahoo's search, e-mail and Web communities.

It is also trying to fend off the expansion of Google, which has made inroads into Microsoft's home turf with a portfolio of Web based-applications, e-mail and messaging.

A Google deal would boost Yahoo's operating performance in the near term, but runs the risk of regulatory scrutiny over an alliance between the Internet's top two players.

"If it turns out that Google was just being used to thwart Microsoft, I think investor reaction will be very negative," Lindsay said.

In a letter to Yang over the weekend, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer warned that any deal between Yahoo and Google would be difficult to unravel and would preclude an agreement with Microsoft.

Yang told media the company would take care to structure any such efforts to "preserve as much (as possible) long-term flexibility for Yahoo, both operationally and strategically."

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Google gains from Yahoo-Microsoft takeover drama

Microsoft's unwanted courtship of Yahoo is spinning into a dramatic soap opera that analysts say is playing into the hands of Internet search king Google.

While the US software giant says Google's dominance online is the reason it is eager to buy Yahoo, the California firm's efforts to stave off Microsoft leave Google free to concentrate on strengthening its grip on the market.

"Our big take-away now is that as the situation gets more muddled with more participants and more uncertainty, it seems to solidify Google's standing in the industry," Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Derek Brown told AFP.

A series of Yahoo maneuvers aimed at rebuffing Microsoft were announced or leaked this week, while the software giant may also be upping its game.

On Thursday a report surfaced that Microsoft is exploring an alliance with News Corporation owned by Rupert Murdoch.

Terms of a possible deal include News Corp. contributing cash to help Microsoft buy Yahoo, and then adding its popular social networking website MySpace to the resulting Internet entity.

Such an alliance would be an abrupt change of sides for News Corp., which was among possible "white knights" that Yahoo reached out to for salvation after Microsoft came on strong with a 44.6-billion-dollar offer February 1.

News Corp. also has a long-term deal with Google to host online advertising at MySpace.

Yahoo, meanwhile, is apparently seeking help from longtime rival Google, whose dominance in Internet advertising is among the reasons Yahoo's share of the market have been eroding.

Yahoo announced Wednesday it will launch a limited, two-week test of Google's AdSense for Search service, which essentially means it will be checking how much better Google is at generating cash from online advertising.

Analysts agree that a significant alliance between Google and Yahoo would be squashed by US regulators because the companies combined would control some 90 percent of the online search ad market.

"The company that would clearly want to come to the rescue is Google but they know the regulators would just go nuclear if they did that," Gartner analyst Van Baker said.

Unofficial word has spread that Yahoo is also nearing a deal with Time Warner's America Online to combine the two struggling companies' Internet operations and thwart Microsoft's takeover effort.

Time Warner would reportedly merge AOL into Yahoo and pay for a 20 percent ownership of the combined company.

Yahoo would reportedly use the cash to buy back shares from some of the very stockholders Microsoft is threatening to woo in an effort to have Yahoo's board of directors ousted and replaced with people amenable to the takeover.

Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle agrees that Google benefits while its two closest rivals duel but says that Google might have reason to worry.

Microsoft has a 1.6 percent stake in fast-growing social networking website Facebook. A tie-up with MySpace, while a bit awkward, would give Microsoft footholds in two top social networking properties.

If Yahoo makes an alliance with AOL and then is bought by Microsoft, the combined resources span a formidable swath of hot websites.

"Microsoft and Yahoo might not be a threat to Google, but you throw Murdoch in the mix and that is a credible threat," Enderle said. "The chance Microsoft could pull it off could be what keeps Google up at night. It's scary."

Microsoft is betting that by combining with Yahoo, it can gain ground on Google.

"I think Yahoo genuinely doesn't want to merge with Microsoft," Baker said.

"They think it will be bad for the employees and bad for the industry, and I don't disagree with that."

Yahoo on Monday rejected a three-week deadline from Microsoft to accept the takeover but said it is open to a sweetened bid from the software giant or another bidder.

"I think this is inevitable," Baker said of a Microsoft takeover of Yahoo.

"I'm just very concerned Microsoft will screw it up and we will end up with Google controlling 90 percent of the ad business anyway and that Yahoo culture is going to evaporate."

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Windows Vista Source Code leaked

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