The Journey to Windows 7

In the development of Windows 7, several things have been speculated and screenshots were leaked. I could not think of a better day than today, the launch of Windows 7, to look back at the development. Below is a series of screenshots which have been collected over the past two years.

Windows 7 Milestone One

When Windows 7 Milestone One was leaked, the blogosphere went wild with rumors and reports. Something as little as an out of place button caused crazy speculation. When bloggers, including myself, look back and read this speculation it makes me stop and wonder what we was thinking.

Windows 7 M1 was a very small step forward from Windows Vista. At that point the two OS’ were almost identical except for a few minor changes. Of course, Redmond has lots of things up their sleeve. You can see more screenshots here.

Windows 7 Milestone 2

There is not much to say about Milestone 2 other than it improved the stability and speed of Windows.

Windows 7 Milestone 3

Windows 7 Milestone 3 was without doubt, the biggest leap in the operating system’s development. Not only did it feature a radically different interface than Windows 7 M2, it had plenty of enhancements under the hood. It also gave us our first look at features like Homegroups and Library's. Windows 7 Milestone 3 was also the first version of the OS that Microsoft released to the public.

Windows 7 Beta

Compared to Windows 7 M3, the Beta provided more under the hood enhancements than anything. There were a few visible changes, nothing too major. Windows 7 Beta did set in stone what the Windows 7 UI would be like, setting to rest any wild rumors.

Windows 7 RC

The release of the Windows 7 RC came as a shock to most people because, abnormally, there was no Beta 2 or 3. That just went to show how confident Microsoft was in reliability of their product.

The RC debuted a a feature called Windows XP mode which will greatly change how compatibility worked. In previous versions of Windows, if you wished to use a program designed to work in a old operating system in a new one, you had to run it in a virtual PC. With Windows XP mode people no longer have to do that. If you want to read more about Windows XP mode you can do so here.

Windows 7 RTM

The RTM marked the end of Windows 7’s development. The RTM was not very different than the RC, but it is without doubt the most important stage in an operating systems development. When the RTM is completed it means the the operating system is finalized, and that computer’s are beginning to be shipped with Windows 7. Remarkably the development of one of the best OS’s only took 2 years.