Right on par with some of the changes I mentioned would be coming to Windows 7, regional themes are now an option for different countries. It’s expected that more will be added as time goes on, but the five English-speaking countries currently stereotyped themed in build 6956+ are:

• Australia
• Canada
• South Africa
• United Kingdom
• United States

The themes are nothing more than color and wallpaper combinations for now. I’m assuming that the appropriate theme will be chosen depending on the location of the person installing Windows 7, but that has yet to be seen.

Beta 1 is currently in escrow, so any other remaining hidden features should also be visible by the time Beta 1 rolls around on January 13th at the MSDN Developer Conferences*. We should have more information for you guys regarding these themes down the road, but for now, feel free to check out screenshots of the five country-specific themes below:

*if any of you are attending the MSDN DevCon in Washington D.C., I’ll gladly meet up with you at the event! Just drop me a PM on the forums in advance to arrange a meeting place.

The final pillar focuses much more on the business-oriented aspects of Windows 7 rather than the consumer additions we saw in the previous four pillars. The scenarios covered by this particular pillar are designed to make deployment and maintenance of Windows 7 easier than any prior operating system. Most of the scenarios in this pillar seem to be nothing more than enhancements of features which made their debut in Windows Vista, which is good for companies looking to minimize costs while looking to deploy an improved OS since it would mean less training for both employees and IT professionals.

This is the final post in the series, so feel free to comment on any of the five pillars in this thread. The fifth pillar is across the link

Pillar Five: Engineered for Ease of Ownership

Windows 7 will put a number of computer repair personnel out of a job (kidding) while making life much easier for the typical corporate network administrator by providing the tools necessary to keep Windows running as long and as healthy as possible.

• Data Recovery as well as Diagnostics and Health will both carry over from Windows Vista. Shadow Copies, easy backups, the reliability monitor, Network Access Protection, etc. should all carry over into Windows 7. Not much specific information exists on these two scenarios, which leads me to believe that there won’t be much in the way of new features here besides possibly making it easier to deploy.
• Less Fear of New Applications as the need for applications to use administrative access to deliver a rich and seamless interface will decrease. Less administrative access means a safer system and less worry over potential harm, as well as less of those pathetic User Access Control jokes your network administrator makes on a routine basis.
  
  Quick example: DPI scaling no longer requires UAC or even a reboot because all DPI changes are now done at the user level (per account).
  I took that screenshot at 133DPI, which is the literal DPI count for my laptop screen.

• Migration from Vista to Windows 7 will be improved compared to the process from XP to Vista. The hassles of upgrading and migration for both home and business users will lessen, which might be enough of a blessing to get people to move over to Windows 7 as opposed to ditching Windows for another operating system. This, of course, flies in the face of a recent article posted by BOFH over at thebetaguy, since migration of applications would be completely impossible based on what he thinks Windows 7 would do to backwards compatibility.
• Business Productivity and Security enhancements will allow for administrators to deploy Windows 7 fast while keeping costs low and keeping the network secure. On a personal note, I think this may be the hardest feature to pull off simply because of how many different usage scenarios an IT department might run into during deployment, though if Microsoft wants to try, more power to them.
• Devices will “just work!” This one is self explanatory on paper, though in my view it will be just as impossible to achieve as the perfect business storm labeled above.
• A Quick and Clean OOBE translates to less time spent installing and configuring the operating system. The target installation time which the Windows 7 product team seems to be aiming for is ten minutes with at most one reboot, while the first run OOBE dialogs in Windows 7 will try to make personalizing Windows 7 quick and easy.
  Here’s a good example:
  
  This is one of the new dialogs which a user will see while completing his or her installation of Windows 7 M1,
  giving the user more control over getting his/her computer up and running even before logging on for the first time.
  A number of AeroXP old-timers will note that this harks back to the days of pre-reset Longhorn, when a build would install in an insane 15 minutes compared to the 50 minute install times of XP and Windows Vista.
• Reduced IT Management Costs thanks to easy-to-implement Group Policy Objects and the Windows PowerShell. PowerShell will not replace the command prompt. All that matters with this scenario is that version 2 of PowerShell will be present within Windows 7 along with (hopefully) a bunch of “cmdlets” for system administrators.
  *cmdlets are basically little scripts which run almost as their own executables within Windows PowerShell, thus making administration easier from within PowerShell. I’m not proficient with PowerShell, so if anyone would like to expand on this, feel free to do so in the comments.
• Corporate Data Security will be improved without compromising efficiency and employee productivity. According to the scenario description, sensitive document creation, editing, sharing, etc. will all be easier than before, though there isn’t much elaboration beyond this. Auditing improvements will also be added, such as the ability to audit when certain applications were used (number of times, durations, possibly even the number of times features within an application were used) as well as tracking reasons for granting access to specific files, documents, applications, etc.

These are the five pillars, with lots of scenarios and features to fill them all. Microsoft set some lofty goals in the fifth pillar (we can all agree that the “Just works!” idea goes back a long way), though a good number of these also seem reasonable given the length of the development cycle. I personally never thought Vista was a terrible operating system, but if this is what Microsoft has planned for Windows® 7, all the criticism the Windows team endured during the Vista launch may have proven valuable after all.

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The third pillar in my series focused on how Windows 7 would personalize computing online, at work, and at home. The home computing additions coming to Windows 7 also include a number of home media and entertainment ideas in the fourth pillar for Windows 7, though this particular pillar focuses less on personalization and more on delivering your media to you quickly, efficiently, and vibrantly.

Most of the material in this pillar is likely covered by the eHome labs, which means most of the material covered here will be fairly vague. As with the rest of the pillars, you’ll find out more throughout the development of the operating system, though if the eHome team has control over most of this pillar, I wouldn’t be surprised to see an overwhelming amount of definition come to the scenarios in this pillar once the Beta 1 milestone is reached.

Comments? Insight? Post! Click the Read More link for the fourth pillar.

Pillar Four: Optimized for Entertainment

Content pervades everything. High Definition content can now be delivered over the internet while user created media is becoming as popular as ever. Will Microsoft finally break into the home entertainment environment with Windows 7?

• HiFi Graphics: with things like text and photo rendering will let Windows present a visually appealing experience as a media hub, even with high DPI displays. In other words, the failure that was Windows Vista’s high DPI modes should hopefully be corrected in Windows 7. More fluid transitions in the UI can also be expected.
• Home Media Streaming will take advantage of new wireless connectivity mediums to provide all devices and computers within a home access to all media content in the home. Since Microsoft already has Windows Media Center Extenders as well as Windows Media Player sharing, this will likely be a more transparent implementation of these two technologies (plus others, such as the possibility of mobile media streaming like with what Monsoon does with the HAVA.)
• Optimized Playback will give Windows 7 playback which is quick to start coupled with the support for common media and the consistent user experience needed to provide the user with a seamless home entertainment experience. This will compliment the experience which Windows already provides with the user interface, as well as helping to increase a general feel of consistency while using Windows 7.
  
  Windows Media Player’s library mode sports a slightly altered and more explorer-like user interface in M1, though this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise (left). Edit: The real surprise is the lack of a navbar when launching media player when opening a video; Windows Media Player comes with two windowed playmodes (library mode and player mode) in Milestone 1*, which can be chosen via the button-menu in the extreme lower right hand corner (right). This could be what the product team means with “optimized playback,” though we’ll see this clarified in the near future.
• TV on Windows will give the user access to TV, be it analog or digital, cable, satellite, or over-the-air broadcasting no matter where the user is on the planet. Premium channels are not excluded!
  Is this the IPTV which a few people think will be coming to Windows 7? I’ve got nothing to tell you; my contacts are unsurprisingly silent.
• SOUND will be tweaked and improved, using Windows Vista’s sound stack as a foundation. The auditory experience will be highly adjustable and just as amazing. Hopefully, this will get Creative back on the ball (I’ve already switched to ASUS; Creative lost me with their driver fiasco).

Out of all of the pillars I’ve taken a look at so far, the Optimized for Entertainment pillar may become Windows 7’s strong suite thanks to competition posed by various companies and devices in the home media field, though that doesn’t mean the rest of them don’t have a chance to be just as outstanding.

The final pillar will focus less on the consumer orientation of Windows 7 and more on what Windows 7 will do to make life easier for both consumers and businesses.

* I originally stated that the player mode might actually be a bug, though a Microsoft employee pointed out the player menu after this article went live. Sorry about that!

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So far, we’ve discussed the Specialized for Laptops and Designed for Services pillars of Windows 7. The common thread between these two focuses on connectivity and utilization of online resources. The third pillar, unsurprisingly, shares the same common link with the other two pillars.

Part Three of my series on the Five Pillars of Windows 7 will expand on some of the elements of the Designed for Services pillar with Microsoft’s plan for personalization and access. Given how susceptible the User Interface of an application or operating system is to change, this pillar could see the largest shift in scope over the coming years, so don’t be terribly surprised if the information in this pillar sees the most change out of all of them.

Comments are appreciated. You can catch pillar three after the jump.

Pillar Three: Personalized Computing for Everyone

It’s as it sounds. Microsoft will move to transform Windows 7 from a generic operating system (despite how pretty Vista happens to be) to one which users can identify with. Will we finally see third party themes?
The irony in this pillar is that the scenarios focus more on globalized access of resources than the Designed for Services pillar does. Given the early nature of all of this, I’m sure things will become more organized.

• “This desktop is made for me!” Users want to associate themselves with what they use. A customizable desktop provides just that. This particular scenario is still up in the air, though a number of close sources say that we could see a demonstration of what Microsoft means with this scenario by the time PDC rolls around.
• Culturalization improvements give the user the ability not just to choose a language and location, but to choose what is termed as a “market theme” which would change many aspects of Windows to reflect a user’s cultural background. From a marketing perspective, I think this would help keep Microsoft in the homes of people outside of America quite easily. Americans tend to be less protective and embracing of culture than the rest of the world, so a cultural slant would help not only to keep the Microsoft name afloat in other markets, it will attract more people towards using a computer. I personally think this will fold well into Microsoft’s plans for low cost computing in third world nations.
• Access, access, access! Accessing files from anywhere is vitally important in Windows 7. Accessing home content remotely as well as better offline file access, compiled with seamless access to all of your resources (see Working on Demand) will allow for Explorer to present your files to you as if they were available locally. Using your home content remotely would be secure, with nothing left behind on the machine you use to connect to your home network. Again, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this occur with the help of Windows Live, though no such Live integration was noted by this scenario.
• Secure Roaming personalizes computing for everyone by rolling new features into both Windows 7 and Live ID. For example, certain settings like IE favorites sharing (a Delicious Flock of Furl, if you get my drift), web passwords, and possibly even broader user account roaming will allow for a user to feel more at home no matter where he is. Expect more online-storable things (think SkyDrive) to be enabled.
• Home Network Management enhancements give the user the ability to easily create a secure home network which grants seamless access to media and other computers possible. This home network can be automatically detected by an enrolled laptop, granting access to printers, files, and resources while protecting work data. You can see where Microsoft is going with this in the screenshots below:
  
  This is what a user of Windows 7 Milestone 1 would be confronted with during setup.
  Sadly, it breaks when you try to assign a password, so there’s obviously much work to be done.

By now, a common trend is beginning to emerge; Microsoft is connecting Windows to its online platforms much the same way it’s doing with Office and Office Live. It’s a healthy assumption to say that this is all in response to Google’s ballooning size and the threat it poses to Microsoft.

I’ll post part four of my series either tomorrow or Monday depending on the demand. It’ll appear online at around the same time.

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Yesterday’s pillar (Specialized for Laptops) focused on changes which, while applicable to all platforms on which Windows 7 will be found, have a slant in favor of mobile platforms. This is part two of my series on the Five Pillars of Windows 7. Most of the emphasis in today’s pillar will be focused on how Windows 7 will spread the Windows Experience away from just your hard drive.

As always, comments are appreciated. Pillar Two (Update: with screenshots!) is after the break.

Pillar Two: Designed for Services

Microsoft has been working on expanding its online properties. Windows Live is the manifestation of Microsoft’s Windows-related online efforts, and it seems that these services will play a key role in Windows 7:

• Being Up to Date with Windows Vista is easy thanks to Windows Update. Windows 7 will look to expand this a bit, but the scenario presented by Microsoft is fairly vague. My own personal interpretation is that Windows 7 will encourage an up-to-date experience with all applications installed on a Windows machine (which presumably will have to opt into Windows Update to take advantage of it). The user would be notified of any applications which could be in need of a tweak or update.
• Worry-free Upgrades means that the advantages of upgrading as well as specific upgrade paths will be easy to understand for the user. Confusion over the benefits and disadvantages of upgrading will be minimized, and for counterfeit users, an easy and hassle-free path to genuine Windows will be made possible. My personal opinion regarding the counterfeit purchase program gig is that Microsoft is targeting the wrong users for it. I could be very wrong, but I don’t believe there are many laypeople who are buying
• Windows Online will essentially serve as a knowledge base for the average user, providing information, resources, and assistance for everything from solving problems, being up to date, and even choosing a Windows machine that’s right for the user. It likely won’t be much different from the resources Microsoft already maintains online.
• Help and Community access will allow for a user to upload information about his/her computer to communities of Windows Experts who can help answer questions. It’s analogous to when you run HijackThis and post the results on an anti-spyware forum for the more experienced users to filter. Whether this will take advantage of only Microsoft communities or non-Microsoft communities as well is up in the air, though I know I’d love to get AeroXP involved (we’ve got a great bunch of people here).
• The Family Friendly Web Experience will help parents protect their children from content which might be seen as unhealthy for those underage. Essentially, it’s a broadening of Parental Controls in Vista, though as it’s within the Designed for Services pillar, online coordination will likely play a large role. Online adult blacklists, perhaps?
• Gadgets that are ready when you are and safe, too. Tying into the Working on Demand scenario as well as other optimizations such as information caching, gadgets (be they for Live or for your Sidebar) will always present relevant content to the user without service dropouts.
• In-box application improvements will be evident in applications such as WordPad, Paint, the Calculator, and other core tools. Some of these applications will see added functionality for the first time in over a decade, though seeing anything significant is probably nothing more than a dream.
  The god-worded term used internally for this particular scenario is “Applets that showcase the Platform.” The reasoning behind my use of a different title should be obvious enough, I hope. Update: Screenshots of Calculator and Paint added below.

The Calculator saw the addition of two new modes, while Paint now comes with rulers.

Pillar Three will be focused much more on how you, the user, will use Windows 7. Expect it tomorrow at around the same time.

Edit: image links vanished when this page reverted to a backup. I reconnected the links.

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