Microsoft said on Tuesday that regular PC users will be able to test out a "beta" version of Windows early next year.
Windows 7, the forthcoming operating system, will let users choose to see fewer alerts and warnings from their computers. Rampant notifications and pop-up windows alerting people to potential security risks has irked many users of Windows Vista.
"We had all the best intentions of helping to secure the PC platform even more, particularly for novice PC users who needed to be protected," said Steven Sinofsky, a senior vice president in Microsoft's Windows group.
Sinofsky didn't back down from the major changes in Vista responsible for the rise in alerts, but he did acknowledge that Microsoft needed to work earlier and more closely with outside companies to avoid a similar mess in Windows 7.
"Despite the difficult change we introduced, we did move forward the ecosystem, making it more secure for end users," he said.
With Vista, Microsoft made some significant design changes to the way windows and icons look, and also to where certain features and functions are stashed in the system.
Windows 7 keeps some of those changes, but tosses out others. In an interview, Julie Larson-Green, a Windows vice president, offered one small example: Microsoft took the "add printer" feature out of the quick-access Start menu, but after users complained, the company is putting it back in Windows 7.
Larson-Green, who led the redesign of Office for the 2007 edition, said that some of the changes made in Vista's design made sense to designers but weren't fully tested on actual PC users.
source : fin24
31-01-2009
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