Windows 7 Multi-Touch demo at D6 Conference

from: Windows 7 news.com

Video: Multi-Touch in Windows 7

Microsoft’s Julie Larson-Green had the honor to do the demonstration saying that Microsoft is using part of the multi-touch technology from Microsoft Surface to enhance Windows 7. The operating system the demonstration is running on is a Dell Latitude XL with Windows 7.

This demonstration is basically showing how Microsoft Surface could enhance Windows 7 on computers. It’s still a bit early to judge if this feature will have a big impact and how it will be implemented into Windows 7. I think that monitors with touch support will still be a minority in 2010 when Windows 7 comes out. Great for notebooks or other mobile devices though.

Here are some quotes from the interview with Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer: (click for full transcript)

• Windows 7 is apparently months away, due late in 2009.
• Walt asks Ballmer if he’s worried about the next iteration of Mac OS X, which will likely be released before Windows 7. Is there a risk that the work you’re doing now with multi-touch will look dated when Apple (AAPL) releases its next OS?
  Ballmer says he’s confident Microsoft will have fantastic Windows 7 PCs, regardless of what Apple’s got on the market. “There’s a lot in Windows 7, and our goal is to produce fantastic PCs with our hardware partners.”
• The conversation turns to Windows 7, which Microsoft hasn’t said too much about. Clearly, the company has learned from the media beating it took over the defeatured and perennially delayed Windows Vista. Indeed, in a post to the Windows Vista blog today, Microsoft’s Chris Flore noted that Microsoft is being very careful about releasing details about Windows 7. “What is a little different today is when and how we are talking about the next version of Windows,” Flore wrote. “So, why the change in approach? We know that when we talk about our plans for the next release of Windows, people take action. As a result, we can significantly impact our partners and our customers if we broadly share information that later changes. With Windows 7, we’re trying to more carefully plan how we share information with our customers and partners. This means sharing the right level of information at the right time depending on the needs of the audience.