Windows 7 freshens while the docs rot

OK - in case you have not yet received your copy of the latest BETA of Windows 7, you only have to wait a few more days. I have been fortunate to receive updated releases from Microsoft for the past little while and I have been really impressed with the stability, build quality and general performance of the BETA version of Windows 7.

 

That said, I am a little surprised at how little things have changed since the release of Windows 7 at the

Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in 2008.  I am using Windows 7 pretty much every day now on one of my test machines and it feels faster than my higher spec main development machine. Windows pop up quicker, the file system in explorer responds quicker and applications load quicker. It feels sharper.

 

That said, I expected some of the pre-release documentation for Windows 7 to be a little better. At present, we have the Windows 7 Developer's guide;

 

Found here:

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Win7DeveloperGuide/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=1702

 

And the Application Compatibility Cookbook (http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=69c63073-fe3f-47c3-baa5-b37943afe227&displaylang=en) is now looking a little dated with it's  last update exactly one year ago.

 

It would be great if we could start working on the some of the compatibility issues for Windows 7 now - instead of waiting until July 2009.

 

That said, there is now a tremendous amount of information on Internet Explorer 8 and application compatibility which can be found here:

 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/ie/cc405106.aspx