The new "Device Stage" in Windows 7

PDC: The new "Device Stage" in Windows 7.

Attaching a device in current versions of Windows gives sometimes unpredictable results. A multi-function printer/scanner/fax, for instance, might show up as several different things within Windows: a printer, scanner, removable disk, and some vendor supplied management suite. Microsoft is introducing a specialized device management interface with Windows 7, however. The "Device Stage" feature is designed to alleviate some of these problems by treating devices as distinct "things" with multiple abilities.

Device vendors will be able to brand and customize the Device Stage for individual products, allowing them to add options based on their particular needs. Microsoft demonstrated this with a multifunction Canon device. The banner area of the window was Canon branded, with icons in the bottom area for ordering ink and other printing supplies. They also showed how a manufacturer can specify particular software for certain tasks. The Canon's "Scan" task defaulted to the included Canon software, rather than the built in Windows Fax and Scan software. I generally hate using vendor-provided software when there's a built in Windows tool to do the same thing, so I was very happy to see a prominent link under each option allowing users to change which tool handles a particular task.

Read more at the source.


Later :shock: Ted

When they showed this off at CES they used the Nikon D90 as a compatible device. Oddly enough though, there isn't support added for it in build 7000. Its not on the list yet. (Mine hooks up like it did in Vista.) There are a few products that are supposed to be set up for Device Stage though.

Here is a List:
Products supported by the new Device Stage feature in Windows 7

Anyone been able to use it yet? Got some feedback?

i know someone with a sansa clip....

i might just post a few pics if some one is interested still

I have one of those HP printers. I'll have to try that out.

Did anyone find a solution to loading the scanner part of a networked HP all-in-one? I have the L7680 on the home network. W7 found and loaded the drivers for the network printer just fine, but I can't get it to "find" the scanner. Any ideas? I read somewhere that you could load the HP Vista software with "compatibility mode", but I am not sure I want to do that for an occasional scan.

Bare Foot Kid said:

The "Device Stage" feature is designed to alleviate some of these problems by treating devices as distinct "things" with multiple abilities.

Device vendors will be able to brand and customize the Device Stage for individual products, allowing them to add options based on their particular needs.

Click to expand...

This is a compromise to vendors who would like to create secondary revenue streams by way of photo development (cameras), music purchase (mp3 players), special inks and papers (printers) and games/ringtones (phones). They've always pushed the installation of their software bundles to promote this junk often at the expense of providing basic drivers to Windows Update. With Device Stages, the vendor has a standardized way of pushing their garbage without requiring the end user to user their often terrible and potentially damaging demo/bundle-ware or deactivating standard Windows methods for accomplishing the same tasks.

All told this is a Good Thing since you get to use the device without letting the hardware vendor make your software choices for you. In case anyone is interested, here's how to make a Device Stage:

http://download.microsoft.com/downl...E-9FDE-D599BAC8184A/CreateDevMetadataPkg.docx

BTW, it's nice to see Microsoft using the docx format for these things as they display nicely in the new Wordpad.