Microsoft Hardware to Take Advantage of Windows 7

[z3r010]

Earlier this week, Microsoft Hardware has a great set of products that work very well with Windows Vista and Windows 7. When Windows 7 hits stores this fall, Microsoft Hardware will release new software that will allow the current line-up of Microsoft Hardware products (mice, keyboards, LifeCams, gaming devices and notebook accessories) to take advantage of new capabilities being introduced with Windows 7 such as the new Windows Taskbar and Device Stage.

Microsoft Hardware will be releasing new software with a feature called Taskbar Favorites, specifically designed for Microsoft keyboards from Microsoft. This feature will give users a quick way to access the applications represented on the new Windows Taskbar in Windows 7. Taskbar Favorites will automatically map the order of applications on the Windows Taskbar to the “My Favorites” hot keys on a Microsoft Hardware keyboard such as the Digital Media Keyboard 3000. “My Favorites” hot keys are a series of buttons on the top of Microsoft keyboards (circled below).

And using Windows Flip, with the press of a button people will be able to see a live preview of all their open windows. This allows people to more quickly navigate between open windows and choose a desired application.

Also, all Microsoft Hardware products will be recognized and shown as actual images of the product when you open the Devices and Printers folder.



In the above screenshot, you will see that my Digital Media Keyboard 3000, Notebook Optical Mouse 3000 and LifeCam Show all show up with actual product images making it much easier to work with the hardware.

The final versions of the software for Microsoft Hardware mice and keyboard products, which will include Taskbar Favorites and Device Stage and Windows Flip support will be available June 26th at the Microsoft Hardware Windows 7 Web site. The final versions of the Microsoft Hardware software for LifeCam products will be available July 31st.

For more information, see this press release on Microsoft PressPass.

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[Night Hawk]

That will be an interesting advancement for those who generally use the MS products to have that feature available. The 7 page for downloads was also posted there for those who have the MS model keyboard pointed to or one of the others. http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/windows7/support.mspx

 

[Lordbob75]

Sounds like a cool idea, but they probably should have opened this to any products. It would make seven that more attractive.

~Lordbob

 

[Night Hawk]

They obviously were going to work with their own product line first as a rule. That's no surprize seeing the prelabeled keys assigned. For other brands you simply program the button there using the non MS software to likely see the same result but with a different configuration.

 

[fseal]

Sounds like a cool idea, but they probably should have opened this to any products. It would make seven that more attractive.

~Lordbob

Seems like all they probably did was put some keys in that automatically did [Windows]+[F1] through [F8] or something... :/

 

[Lordbob75]

Seems like all they probably did was put some keys in that automatically did [Windows]+[F1] through [F8] or something... :/

Most likely. Since most of the public probably doesn't know about that shortcut, it seems like an awesome deal!

~Lordbob

 

[Night Hawk]

What would likely be seen in the updated software you download separately or included with the same models once 7 is out would be the defaults for those same keys otherwise programmable.

Since items on the taskbar except for the preview are simply shortcuts from the Start>Programs to begin with you would simply assign a key for another brand for the same by browsing to the main folder and identifying the executable there.

It's still a good catch on this one! z3r010

The Windows 7 web site page won't be available until the 26th there however since all you see at this time is the ....

 

[swarfega]

hm interesting, a reason to buy microsoft hardware then.

 

[Generator]

Cool! The keyboard functions are included already in the Intellitype Betas from the Win7 Hardware page.

My 4 year old MS Multimedia keyboard's extra buttons now do the flip3d etc instead of boring stuff like open the 'My Pictures' folder. these buttons might actually get used now by me!

 

[holo88]

yeah, intelipoint (mouse version of intelitype) does the flip 3d with the middle mouse button. leads to annoying intrusions and eventually anger.

 

[Generator]

yeah, intelipoint (mouse version of intelitype) does the flip 3d with the middle mouse button. leads to annoying intrusions and eventually anger.

LOL! I can see how that one will get in the way!

 

[Night Hawk]

yeah, intelipoint (mouse version of intelitype) does the flip 3d with the middle mouse button. leads to annoying intrusions and eventually anger.

LOL! I can see how that one will get in the way!

Hey are you people picking on my little ole 5 button MS Trackball Explorer again?! It's fun having the middle button set to "alt" and the 3rd button set to "enter" right when you reach the tuff spot in a game! :shock: The full screen suddenly gets paused and then minimized real fast!! Arghhh.... :roflmao:

 

[Shayx]

i think ms already have support for other companies devices.
if I'm not mistaken if you connect a mp3 player like sandisk sansa
you will get the player image and specific options.
i swear i've seen it before but don't remember where.

 

[Night Hawk]

That's from the SanDisk builtin software seen there. When wiping a pair of usb flash drives here and plugging one back in sometime later the SanDisk installer reappears just the same. That simply works like the programming seen with any bios there.

What the Flip 3D anything there will intended for is input not storage or plugin devices like your keyboard, mouse, or other controller but not so much for any joystick or gravis pad type. 7 will also see onscreen keyboard interaction if enabled and setup properly. In fact you can watch how that works full screen in the MS SOAPBOX video clip seen at UX Evangelist: Windows 7 NUI: Stepping Beyond the GUI

Besides the only thing seen there being the video clip that runs a minutes when going to see another installation of the 64bit RC here having done some drive reconfiguration something came up out of nowhere namely when setting the buttons on the MS programmable mouse in here I just happened to bump that button and ... :huh: the Flip 3D feature came to life!