Windows 7 News: Software, Virus Protection

The Engineering Windows 7 blog reported that the next version of Windows 7 would be the RC built instead of the Windows 7 beta 2 rumours.
Microsoft’s Swedish partner blog further posted that Windows 7 RC could be released in the first week of April.The blog post also says about the RTM version of Windows 7.The blog post states that the RTM version of Windows 7 would be released in the third quarter of this year.Here is what the blog post reads-
RTM, and business launch as it looks right now Q3 …

The Engineering Windows 7 Blog has posted about the path of Windows 7 from the current beta to the general availability of Windows 7.
Here are the main points from the blog post
The next milestone for the development of Windows 7 is the Release Candidate or “RC”. Historically the Release Candidate has signaled “we’re pretty close and we want people to start testing the release, especially because all the features are done.” As we have said before, with Windows 7 we chose a slightly different approach which we were clear up …

Damien Reynolds of Neowin.net has posted information regarding downloading and installing Windows 7 updates from the Microsoft Connect web site, no matter whether what we’re running the Windows 7 Ultimate Beta, the Windows 7 Home Premium Beta, or Windows 7 Server Beta.
These are some of the updates provided on the Microsoft Connect Site:

Windows 7 Beta Critical WMP and WMC Critical Update – KB961367
Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 Beta Preliminary Release Notes
Windows 7 Beta (7000-0-081212-1400) SDK and Symbols
Windows 7 Beta (7000-0-081212-1400) WDK
Windows 7 Beta (7000-0-081212-1400) …

This blog post discusses some of the platform innovations in Windows 7 and how Windows 7 applications have adopted and showcased these innovations. This post details some of the platform features that developers and partners can expect in Windows 7 and how Windows 7 programs have showcased these innovations. This post also discusses how applications have been given a facelift both in terms of their functionality as well as their user experience by focusing on key Windows design principles and platform innovations. Finally, this post can serve as a …

The Internet Explorer 8 RC1 is available for download though the links were removed pretty fast from the official Microsoft Download site,still we were able to download the first public copy of Internet Explorer 8 RC1 .
You could still download the IE 8 RC1 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 from here
Here is what the IE 8 download page reads
Internet Explorer 8 is the latest version of the familiar web browser you are most comfortable using, helping you get everything you want from the web faster, easier, more privately …

Mike Swanson,a MS employee has created a theme pack for Windows 7.Here is what his blog post reads-
Windows 7 introduces theme packs, which are .cab files that contain all of the necessary assets to implement a theme, including sound files and images. You can find a bunch of theme packs on the Windows 7 site, and Paul Thurrott covers the basics and includes his own theme packs in his article, Windows 7 Feature Focus: Styles and Desktop Slide Shows.
As an experiment, I’ve created a theme pack based on my …

Microsoft executives say one of the lessons they’ve learned from Windows Vista is that notebook PCs have very different requirements than desktop PCs, and that adjustments reflecting this new understanding will be evident in Windows 7.
In a recent interview with Channelweb.com, Mike Nash, corporate vice president of Windows Product Management, said that in its development of Windows 7, Microsoft paid close attention to the transitions that notebooks go through between home and work usage, and how these transitions affected Vista notebook performance.
"We used to treat notebooks as …

Chinese site pcbeta.com has posted some of the screenshots of Windows 7 beta build 7025.The build number is written as 7025.0.x86fre.winmain.09120-1850 which states that the build was created on the 20th Jan 2009 and also the main thing is that this beta version has Internet Explorer 8 RC 1 installed in it.Also the build expires on 2nd July 2009
Here are the screenshots-

Search terms:windows explorer 8 (1)

If you are still feeling patriotic and are using Windows 7 then you can check out Paul Thurrott’s new Washington D.C. theme pack for Windows 7. He has made the theme using several photos he took on a trip to D.C. back in August 2007. Photos include the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, and more.

Paul has offered it up as a free download from several different locations including the following:

Download Paul’s D.C. theme (Box.net)
Download Paul’s D.C. theme (SkyDrive)
Download Paul’s D.C. theme (ZIP, SkyDrive) …

Brandon LeBlanc, has posted a blog post, updating the dates and deadlines for the broad availability of Windows 7 Beta. Though if you are a TechNet or MSDN Subscriber this doesn’t apply to you and you would continue to enjoy the download till the beta ends!
The entire blog post can be read HERE.
Here are the main points from the site
The shutdown of general availability for the Windows 7 Beta will occur in 3 phases over the course of the next few weeks:

Starting January 27th, the Windows 7 page will …