It seems as if Microsoft has learned their lesson, and have recently announced the official W7 product editions.  Initially, it will not seem any better when I tell you that W7 features no less than 5 product editions (technically 6, but we’ll get to that later).  Vista had 5, W7 has 5…what gives?

To explain how W7 is better in this regard, we must first introduce you to the new product editions.  Meet W7 Starter, W7 Home Premium, W7 Professional, W7 Enterprise, and W7 Ultimate.

Note: Each quote below is taken directly from Paul Thurrott’s WinSuperSite, since he explains it better than I can.

Windows 7 Starter

Market: Worldwide availability this time but with new PCs only 

Key features: Enhanced taskbar, Jump Lists, Windows Media Player, Backup and Restore, Action Center, Device Stage, Play To, Fax and Scan, basic games 

What’s missing: Aero Glass, many Aero desktop enhancements, Windows Touch, Media Center, Live thumbnail previews, Home Group creation

This version will only be sold through PC makers to users, but unlike with Vista, it will be sold worldwide. This suggests that netbook makers will choose this version, even in the US. As with previous Windows Starter Edition products, it is limited in some ways: You can run only three applications at once, don’t get Windows 7’s full mobility capabilities, and can participate in but not create a Home Group. Also, there’s no Aero Glass.

Windows 7 Home Premium

Market: Mainstream retail market 

Key features: Aero Glass, Aero Background, Windows Touch, Home Group creation, Media Center, DVD playback and authoring, premium games, Mobility Center 

What’s missing: Domain join, Remote Desktop host, advanced backup, EFS, Offline Folders

The volume Windows 7 offering for consumers builds on Starter and includes Mobility Center, Aero Glass, advanced windows navigation features like Aero Snap and Aero Peek, and multi-touch, as well as the ability to both create and participate in Home Groups. Home Premium will be sold at retail and be included with new computers.

Windows 7 Professional

Market: Mainstream retail market 

Key features: Domain join, Remote Desktop host, location aware printing, EFS, Mobility Center, Presentation Mode, Offline Folders 

What’s missing: BitLocker, BitLocker To Go, AppLocker, Direct Access, Branche Cache, MUI language packs, boot from VHD

This volume Windows 7 version builds on Home Premium and adds features like domain join, Group Policy (GP) controls, location aware printing, advanced backup, EFS, and offline folders. Pro will be sold at retail and be included with new computers

Windows 7 Enterprise

Market: Volume-license business customers only 

Key features: BitLocker, BitLocker To Go, AppLocker, Direct Access, Branche Cache, MUI language packs, boot from VHD 

What’s missing: Retail licensing

As before, Enterprise is aimed at Microsoft’s Software Assurance (SA) volume license customers. This time, however, Enterprise is a superset of Professional and adds much-heralded Windows 7 features like Direct Access, Branch Cache, BitLocker, and BitLocker To Go.

Windows 7 Ultimate

Market: Retail market, limited availability 

Key features: BitLocker, BitLocker To Go, AppLocker, Direct Access, Branche Cache, MUI language packs, boot from VHD 

What’s missing: Volume licensing

For those few customers who simply must have everything, Windows 7 Ultimate offers all of the features from Enterprise but loses the volume licensing requirement. So you can think of Ultimate edition as Enterprise for consumers (and other retail customers).

Windows 7 Ultimate is kind of a wild-card. It will be available at retail and with new PCs, but Microsoft suggested that it will not be heavily marketed and will instead be “offer-based” via occasional promotions and offers from both PC makers and retailers.

“We’re experimenting with the kinds of offers we can make for Windows 7 Ultimate,” Veghte said. “It’s going to be a low-single digit run rate (i.e. low market share) product. We expect retailers and OEMs to occasionally offer Ultimate with new PCs as part of special promotions. But in terms of run rate, it will be a tiny, tiny percentage of the volume. We will keep the marketing energy on Home Premium and Professional.”

Initially, it doesn’t seem much better than Vista, does it?  When you read between the lines, however, Microsoft is focusing these editions more tightly, and will only market them towards their intended destinations.  W7 Starter will only be found on new PCs, and low-end PCs at that, such as netbooks.  It’s highly unlikely that American consumers will see this edition much, if at all.  It will not be sold at retail for upgrade purposes.

W7 Home Premium and W7 Professional will maintain top retail presence anywhere you find yourself looking to purchase W7.  This will feel very similar to XP, which launched with two product editions (even though they branched out later).  W7 Enterprise will be available in volume licensing only, meaning there will be absolutely no retail presence, and only the intended market will have access to it.  W7 Ultimate is kind of the wildcard, as it’s retail presence will be highly understated, and will be used only to satiate enthusiast crowds.  Microsoft has stated that W7 Ultimate is looked at taking less than 1% of it’s market share.

The other lesson learned by Microsoft here is that each successive package is a true superset of the previous.  Upon moving up the price ladder, you don’t gain features and lose others like with Vista.  When you pay more for a package, you simply gain more features on top of what the previous package offers.

So that’s W7 product editions in a (big) nutshell.  As Joe Consumer, you’ll mainly be presented with 2 versions of W7 when it releases (99% of the time).  This is much better than the 4 or 5 you were greeted with when Vista released.  Plus, there should be much less confusion on exactly what you’re getting with the version you choose.

Oh, and the note above about there technically being 6 W7 versions?  There will be a W7 Home Basic version lurking out there, but this is strictly for “emerging” markets such as Brazil and others, so us American consumers will never see this.

Meet your new taskbar:

Initially, it simply looks like the Vista taskbar with large, oversized quicklaunch icons.  If this is what you were thinking, then you’re correct.  Sort of.

What’s different about this new taskbar is that these icons now also represent open programs as well.  Before, you’d open a window, and a slot would appear on the taskbar with a small icon and the title of the window.  Now, it will only be represented by an icon.  So how can you tell the difference between an open program and a simple quicklaunch icon?  Easy, a translucent box is formed around the icon:

As you see in the picture above, I now have an IE8 window running, and the icon on the far right is my WLW (Windows Live Writer) program that is running (both are minimized).  If one of these programs has focus (i.e. you are currently using it and interacting with it), the box will fill in with some fancy glass/translucent graphics.  As you may have deduced already, if you have an icon pinned to the taskbar, it acts as quicklaunch.  If you open a program that is not already pinned to the taskbar, it’s icon will show up, and the translucent box will surround it, indicating a currently running program.  You can pin any programs you wish to the taskbar in order for them to act as a quicklaunch icon.

Simply clicking on the icons as you see above will open the currently running program (or a new instance of that program if one is not already running).

So what if you have a program pinned to the taskbar as a quicklaunch icon, you already have that program running, and you want to open another instance of the program as a separate window?  As of right now, if you have an IE8 window already open, and you want to open another, clicking on that IE8 icon will simply open the currently running window.  All you have to do is right-click that icon, and there’s an option to open another instance of it.  This is a big point of contention against the new taskbar by beta testers due to the fact that it now takes an extra click to open another instance, so we’ll see if this changes in the future.

When you finally do manage to open a second instance of the same program, does it add a second icon to the taskbar?  Nope.  It indicates multiple windows open by “collating” the icon, or showing a stack of icons, so to speak.  Here we can see I have 3 IE8 windows running at the same time:

This subtle effect lets you know you have multiple windows open.  So how do choose which particular window you want open?  After all, there’s only one icon to click for 3 different windows.  This is made easy by popping open a quick view of each window, which automatically shows if you click that one IE8 icon:

This shows the 3 IE8 windows I have open, and a simple click on one of those will open it.  Once again, this is causing a few people to hate the new taskbar, simply because it takes an extra click to open a window if you have multiple instances running.  Definitely a valid concern in my opinion, although I don’t mind it personally.  If a user had window grouping turned on in Windows XP, this same idea is applied, so some may not even notice a difference.

As you can also see in the above picture, you’ll notice that I’ve opened Paint (it’s how I cropped the screen above), as it’s icon is over on the right side.  So in the picture, you can see that I have multiple IE8 windows running, WLW running, and Paint running.  The 3 icons that show and aren’t running are my other quicklaunch programs, Windows Explorer (the way you view your file structure), Windows Mail (the free email program from Microsoft), and the Zune software (my media player of choice).  If a program is open and it’s icon isn’t pinned to the taskbar as a quicklaunch icon, it will disappear once you close the program.

All in all, it’s a fairly simple new system, which acts a lot like Mac OSX’s dock.  For better or for worse, this is the direction Windows 7 is taking.  I personally like it.  I feel that it’s a nice change from a completely cluttered taskbar with multiple windows open.  It’s easy to see which programs are running and which are not and are acting as quicklaunch icons.  If you don’t like the large gaudy icons, there is an option for smaller icons.

I should also close by saying that you can change this taskbar to act somewhat like the taskbar of old, complete with text and separate icons for each separate program/window open.  But what fun is that?

Check back soon for the third feature spotlight.

This first feature spotlight will focus on “Aero Peek”.  Aero Peek is an evolved idea from the “Show Desktop” icon from past windows versions.  Previously, if you clicked on the Show Desktop icon in your quicklaunch bar, all windows would be minimized, leaving it for you to reopen the windows in the order you wanted once you were done with your desktop duties.  This was fine, but sometimes annoying when you just wanted to take a look at your desktop for the presence of a file, but not have to deal with re-opening a dozen windows.

Enter Aero Peek, which is activated by simply hovering over the new glass tile next to the time display on the taskbar:

You can see it above sitting to the right of the time display.  It’s very unassuming, which is nice.  Simply hover your mouse over it, and in a split second, you get a quick view of your desktop.  For example, here is my desktop with some windows open (IE8, WLW, Wordpad, Calculator, and Windows Update):

However, once you hover your mouse over the glass tile, it will appear as such:

Feel free to click on the pictures above for a bigger version.  It shows you the outlines of your open windows as a way to tell you that you’re using Aero Peek.  Once you move your mouse cursor off of the glass tile, all your windows immediately reappear as they were.  I love this feature because it enables me to dock my calendar and weather applet (as you can see in the upper right of the second picture) on the desktop without making my windows smaller so I can see them at all times.  A quick hover lets me see what I need to see in a non-destructive manner.

But don’t fret, if you still want to minimize all your windows in true “show desktop” fashion, simply click the glass tile, and everything will disappear.  Simple as that.

The next Windows 7 Feature Spotlight will introduce you guys to the brand new taskbar.  It changes up things from what you’re used to.  Some people hate it, some people like it.

So what better solution for SFIV than to purchase a quality arcade stick?

This puppy will only set me back $150.  Seeing as to how I’m not rich, anyone want to donate to my good cause?  You can write it off on your taxes if you wish…

Consider this my first test of this software, as I like the idea of forming blog posts outside of the site atmosphere and in something more attune to writing and composure.

In my first post to test this software, I’d like to share a small tidbit that I’ve found to love in my recent use with the Windows 7 beta.  Yes, I am sometimes an unabashed Microsoft supporter, but I truly and honestly love most of their products.  I was an early adopter of Vista, I’m a huge XBOX 360 supporter, and after trying an iPod, Creative Vision, and a Zune, the Zune by and far met my needs more than the other two.  With all these products, my integrated experience between them all is unparalleled.

To get on with my post, I was downloading some sound drivers for my fresh install of W7.  Per usual, I minimized the download window until it completed.  A couple minutes later, I took a quick look at the redesigned task bar, and noticed a glowing green bar on my IE icon.  I had no idea what this was, so a quick Google search showed that when you are downloading something, the IE icon fills up gradually in green to indicate the percentage downloaded.  Awesome!  No more continuous checking to see where the download stands.

Here is my download at approximately 25%:

Here it is nearly complete:

It’s one of those little touches that I love finding.  There are quite a few more things that I’m loving about W7, and I’ll blog about them as I go.

Oh, and let’s hope this post works ;).

If you’re not familiar with the monthly NPD’s, they are released around the middle of the month by the NPD Group.  The NPD Group is the leading global provider of consumer and retail market research information for a wide range of industries.  OK, that last line was lifted from their official website, but you get the drift.   In the  case of the gaming industry, they work directly with certain retailers to get the sales data they need.  However, that’s where the NPD reports falter a bit.  Take note that NPD numbers do NOT include all major retailers in the nation!  One notable exception?  Wal-Mart.

Even still, the numbers are considered the most accurate available, and provide an easy at-a-glance comparison that console fanboys love so much (assuming you’re loyalty lies with a machine or game at the top of the list).

So on to the list, shall we?  These are sales numbers for November, in units sold:

• Wii: 2.04m
• DS: 1.57m
• Xbox 360: 836K
• PSP: 421K
• PS3: 378K
• PS2: 206K

The Wii is still selling at record breaking pace.  Assuming it can sell around 400k units in the month of December (anybody think it can’t?), it will break the yearly US sales record for a console, ousting the venerable PS2.  The DS also continues to sell amazingly well for a handheld, and continues the steam of sales present since the launch of the redesigned DS Lite.

The XBOX 360 rides into the holiday with the lowest priced console at $199, and sales show it.  While many consider the $199 360 to be “gimped”, I feel it’s a viable alternative to more expensive options.  Why can’t the consumer have a choice and not have the internet nerds berate them for it?  You don’t need the hard drive in order to play games, and I think a lot of consumers appreciate that option.

The Sony family rounds out the bottom of our list.  The PSP is still selling a decent amount of units despite the lack of recent quality games for the system.  The PS3 is down year-over-year in sales, which is not a good sign.  The price of the system is it’s biggest downfall.  While Sony utilized the blu-ray drive in the PS3 to win the high-def format war, it’s simultaneously killing it in the console war due to price.  The PS2 falls in last place, but really, it’s still selling over 200k units a month 8 years after release!  Nobody would argue with those numbers.

Next up is software sales.  Once again, numbers are in units sold.

1. Gears of War 2 - Xbox 360 – 1.56 million
2. Call of Duty: World at War - Xbox 360 – 1.41 million
3. Wii Play w/ remote - Wii – 796K
4. Wii Fit - Wii – 697K
5. Mario Kart - Wii – 637K
6. Call of Duty: World at War - PS3 – 597K
7. Guitar Hero: World Tour - Wii – 475K
8. Left 4 Dead - Xbox 360 – 410K
9. Resistance 2 - PS3 – 385K
10. Wii Music - Wii – 297K

While it’s easy to spot Gears 2 on top of the list, you can’t discount the combined sales of both versions of Call of Duty: World at War, which would put it in first at 2 million units sold.  Wii Play falls in #3, but this is one of my biggest sore spots about the NPD numbers every month.  Wii Play is 80% hardware, 20% software.  It comes with a controller, which is a $40 value…the Wii Play package is $50.  So you’re basically buying a controller with a collection of (bad) minigames, not the other way around.  Wii Play has no place on this list in my opinion.

Other notables include the low sales figure for Resistance 2 on the PS3, and the lack of any PS3 or 360 Guitar Hero: World Tour listings.  It would seem that gamers outside of the Wii system are just about tired of the music genre as it stands.  The appearance of GH:WT for the Wii on the list is simply more evidence that the Wii is bending the demographics more than any console to date.