Microsoft announced the Windows 7 Touch Pack back in May but originally it was meant for OEMs only. Today the company confirmed that it will be offering the Touch Pack for download soon.

The official Touch Pack site states "the Touch Pack comes preinstalled on some multitouch PCs running Windows 7, and will soon be available for download. It's not included in Windows 7." A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the sighting to Neowin but would only say "Microsoft is planning to make it available via download soon but has not confirmed/committed to a timeline."

Microsoft Blackboard:

Microsoft Blackboard is another rather intriguing piece of software. It is a puzzle game, that uses simulated physics combined with multi-touch to get the user to solve it. You use gestures to create seesaws, fans and gears that can all be resized and moved around. Everything is pieced together on a virtual blackboard (hence the name), and the goal is to get balloons and balls to a lightbulb.

Microsoft Surface Globe:

The first of these applications is called Microsoft Surface Globe. This, as you can imagine, is a multi-touch capable globe (think Google Earth) that uses the Virtual Earth 3D engine to display a rotatable 3D version of the world. You can visit various locations and regions, get information about some areas, and bookmark your favorites. To add to this, some cities are even constructed in 3D, providing a very realistic and detailed experience. If you want to watch a quick video of this in action, please head to this link. Also, there's a screenshot of this below.



Microsoft Surface Collage:

Next up, we have the Microsoft Surface Collage. This tool allows you to choose a gallery of photos, and then move them around and scale them however you please. If you've watched a video of Microsoft Surface before, you'll have an idea of how this works. Once you've got an arrangement that you like, you can choose to save it as an image then use it as a desktop wallpaper. Again, a screenshot is included.



Microsoft Surface Lagoon:

Microsoft Surface Lagoon is a very interesting looking application. It is, essentially, a screensaver for your computer that you can interact with using your hands via multi-touch technology. It depicts an underwater scene with sand, water (of course), and fish. By interacting with it, you can have fish gather around you and also run your fingers through the virtual water.

More @ www.neowin.net/news/main/09/12/10/mic...

Windows 7's on screen keyboard works for basic text input, but nothing really stands out about it. Hot Virtual Keyboard 5.0 will surely re-excite those who like the full Windows 7 touch experience. With Hot Virtual Keyboard, you get an on-screen keyboard, and much more.

The features:
- Multi-Touch support in Windows 7
- Gestures to quickly change case or insert spaces
- Programmable buttons for performing routine operations such as copying and pasting text
- Keys to launch applications, open Web pages or run macros with a single tap
- Word auto-complete to make typing faster and more accurate than ever
- Fully customizable look and behavior
- Support of multiple languages and keyboard layouts

More @ www.neowin.net/news/main/09/12/17/hot...

The most annoying thing about being a "geek" is the need to be prepared for anything that can go wrong with a computer. With Windows, this becomes even more complicated, as you need to have a disc for each and every edition of the OS. With Vista, Microsoft introduced a universal disc, but for some reason, with Windows 7, Microsoft felt it better to return to their old ways and make each disc edition specific.

Technibble made a post about this very issue a few weeks ago. It's not that the Windows 7 discs don't contain all editions of the OS, but rather a small 51 byte file is present, restricting the disc to a specific one. To change this, a user would have to manually mess with the disc image. He'd have to create a new ISO from his DVD, remove the ei.cfg file, and write the new ISO back to the DVD.

More @ www.neowin.net/news/main/10/01/04/mak...

At just two months after it hit store shelves worldwide, Microsoft’s latest version of the Windows client enjoys a level of support other platform makers can only dream about. The number of unique applications that play nice with Windows 7 is approaching the 1 million mark, while the number of devices compatible with the operating system is extremely close to 250,000. The statistics were made public by Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive officer, during his keynote address at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

More @ news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-7-Sup...

With the holiday season come gifts. If you're lucky you might have gotten big-ticket items—like new PCs, loaded with Windows 7. And even if you didn't get a new PC, you might have gotten Windows 7 to upgrade an older machine. Finally, if you got around $100 in gift certificates you don't know how to use, you might buy Windows 7 for yourself, because it's an improvement over the Vista and XP—check out our Windows 7 versus XP and Windows 7 versus Vista performance tests. But owning Windows 7 isn't the end of the story—the more you know about this operating system, the better, more convenient, and safer your experience using it will be. Read this overview of our Windows 7 coverage to make the most of your new PC OS.

Anyone who's used a Windows PC over the last few years shouldn't have much trouble adjusting to this operating system's new interface. But there are a few pointers that can ease the transition. For an overview of what's new in the OS and to help you decide whether it's right for you, check out my in-depth review of Windows 7, or view my video tour of its new features.

More @ www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2357663...