Office 2007 Pro Key Is Microsoft betting on Media

One of the greatest knocks from Windows seven slates may be the interface. Yes, Windows seven can deal with touch. But no, it isn't touch-centric.
Some OEMs have taken issues into their very own hands and produced customized touch interfaces that make Windows seven (or Windows Embedded Compact, for all those slate/tablet makers who're building about that working technique as an alternative to full Windows seven). The so-called “Connect Four” interface on the coming ExoPC slates is 1 example.
I;ve heard recurring rumors that Microsoft might develop its own optional “shell” for slate makers that would make Windows seven touch-centric than touch-additive. By providing such an interface, Microsoft would avoid the lack of a consistent and standardized interface that have plagued Android and Windows Mobile developers and users.
But now I;m wondering whether Microsoft is simply going to encourage its OEM partners to use the Windows Media Center interface, or at least elements of it, to create more touch-friendly Windows slate interfaces.
Blogger Mark Wilson,Windows 7 X64, who is a solution architect for an IT services company there, posted some interesting tidbits from the UK TechDays Ballmer Q&A. In response to a question about Microsoft;s planned slate strategy and the suitability of Windows seven for the slate form factor, Ballmer responded:
“Yeah, what you’ll see over the course with the next year is us doing more and more work with our hardware partners building hardware-software optimisations with Windows seven and with Windows 7 Media Center [...] Media Center is big and, when people say ‘hey, we could optimise more for clients’ I think what they generally mean is ‘Big Buttons’. Big Buttons that’s,Windows 7 Enterprise, I think,Office 2007 Ultimate Key, a codeword for Big Buttons and Media Center is Big Buttons not Little Buttons. I’m not trying to trivialise that – it’s a real issue.”
(It;s worth noting that the Media Center UI is the precursor to the ZuneHD and Metro interface. For all these calling for Windows Phone OS 7-based slates, maybe a Windows slate with Media Center;s big buttons and type could be the next-best thing?)
Ballmer went on to say that Microsoft won;t be releasing any kind of interim version of Windows (between 7 and 8) that will be optimized for slates. (That;s been another rumor/theory making the rounds.) Ballmer reiterated that Microsoft would be focusing on making “the next version of Windows” optimized for slates, among other form factors — something we know already from some Windows 8 partner slides that leaked earlier this year.
Until Windows 8 rolls out (2012?), Microsoft is going to focus on getting OEMs to work with features and functionality that;s already out there in some form,Office 2007 Pro Key, Ballmer emphasized.
“(I)t turns out that if we just optimise settings and the configuration of Windows it can be a lot more usable through touch, even on today’s systems – we’re doing that work along with the OEMs,” Ballmer said. “We’re doing work using the OEMs to make positive that they treat ink also as a first class citizen,” he added.
I;m wondering whether Microsoft is simply trying to get its partners to customize to look more like Media Center, or to actually make Media Center technologies key to the coming Windows-based slates. Remember: When Microsoft officials talk about “Windows slates,” sometimes they mean Windows seven slates and sometimes they mean Windows Embedded slates.
Microsoft released to manufacturing Windows Embedded Standard 7 — codenamed “Quebec” — in April 2010. Company officials have said that product is for OEMs who want to include Windows seven features and capabilities in their TVs, set-top boxes and “other specialized devices.”
Embedded Standard is a componentized version of Windows seven. It includes Windows 7 features, ranging from support for Active Directory group policies and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), to Aero, Windows Touch, IE 8 and more. The most potentially interesting new addition to the version seven release with the Embedded Standard platform, however, was Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player 12 functionality, the Softies said.
Windows Embedded Compact seven — which Microsoft has still not yet released to manufacturing,Office 2010 Professional Plus, but is still due to RTM in calendar 2010 — already has been seen in prototype form in some Windows slates/tablets. Microsoft and its partners showed off this summer slates running the near-final Embedded Compact seven code.