Howdy folks—so many comments.  If I can speak for the team, we’re just having a blast reading all the kind words and the enthusiasm.  THANK YOU!  

Off to WinHEC -- stay tuned on http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/winhec/2008/keynotes.mspx

@RonV – we loved your comment :-)  We have tried to address many common suggestions and it is great that it is getting noticed by folks.

It seemed like a good idea to tackle a few of the questions raised in the comment threads so here it goes…

(PS: Yes my comments get eaten too!  This is my third try at writing this.)

Just fyi, we are of course aware of the excitement/enthusiasm around “unlocking” the beta features that happen to be in the beta.  Ed Bott’s blog explained in some detail the difference.  Please keep in mind that the code isn’t done and is neither the final design nor fully implemented.  So running the pre-beta is a configuration where your mileage may vary, so to speak.  See http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=587.

@pmenadue and @ Windows 7 Forums– We showed the native support for the VHD format (both in diskmgmt.msc and diskpart.exe work).  We talked about how you can also natively boot a Win7 VHD via configuring the boot configuration data store editor (bcdedit.exe).  It is a bit tricky to use these in the pre-beta but for the beta we will definitely be sure to do a post that outlines the steps to use these.  We’re using the bootable VHD quite extensively right now for testing and deploying server builds daily.  It is pretty cool!

@Laith – we won’t announce the system requirements until later in the development cycle.  As you’ve’ seen, we have a strong focus on “fundamentals” so we expect any machine that is running Vista to be a good candidate for a Windows 7 machine :-)

@Domenico and @MattJC  – We are using the 2D animation within Windows 7 in a few places.  Stay tuned for more information.  We covered DirectWrite and Direct2D in http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC18/.

@rlopez – Several (ok quote a few) have been clear in suggesting that we implement “virtual desktops” in Windows 7.  This is something we decided not to include this time.  There are just too many challenges / seams in how this works across third party software that we felt it would not be complete.  The right way to address this is to create and evangelize a deeper set of window location/memory APIs that can work across all applications (and be implemented there).  The challenge is just in arranging Windows in one space and then accidently having another copy of the program in another space—then you get into the “last one open decides the space and window location”.  So it is not unlike the challenges with multiple monitors, but sort of adds to the complexity.  That’s just one complexity.  We are definitely aware of the level of requests for this.  Please do check out Mark’s Desktops on sysinternals (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cc817881.aspx).

@boen_robot and others – there were a few specific comments on precise window management or taskbar behavior.  I’d encourage folks to check out the sessions on these and to stay tuned for the beta.  When we read the comments we think we are understanding what the potential questions might be and think that we should be ok in terms of the concerns.  Check out http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC22/ for “design principles” and http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC24/ for “welcome to the desktop”.

@boen_robot kicked off a good discussion about AERO – I think folks arrived at the right spot.  Nearly all PCs from the past 2 years are capable of running Aero.  Generally speaking if you run across a machine where a clean install does not produce an AERO desktop that is likely because the driver is not available on Windows Update.  You might need to go to the *PC Manufacturer* to obtain the driver, especially if the PC is a laptop as many laptop graphics chipsets are customized by the PC maker.  This is the standard practice, especially for discrete graphics.  As folks know, there are cases where DWM has crashed or been turned off due to a graphics intensive/full screen app—in those cases a reboot helps.  Also, a quick test I do is to run the “WEI” (Windows Experience Index) scoring (properties on Computer) to see if AERO kicks in.  The “default” video driver is designed to work all the time and does not support any graphics specific functionality.

@boen_robot – A great point on learning.  One thing we want to do is continue to improve the connection to online assistance.  We’re not pre-beta testing the Windows web site, but we do expect to continue to have more and more “content” for folks there.  That’s for sure the best way we see at delivering this type of help.

@LostLogic – the task bar is going to remain anchored to the primary monitor.  We built in a bunch of options to allow it to have “high capacity” and hopefully that will meet the primary needs.  The challenges of spanning monitors or different resolutions, orientations, and visualizing across the monitor boundaries were going to yield too many edge cases we felt.  One thing to check out with multiple monitors is how the windowing behavior really streamlines things.  Have a look at how when you drag to a second monitor you can easily maximize or dock with one motion.  Super cool!

@mvadu – The desire for recovery media that is Windows only is certainly good feedback for OEMs.  We do encourage all OEMs to make the recovery process super easy and OEMs definitely agree and want to do that.  Do keep in mind that from an OEM perspective, recovery is “return to the original state”.  More and more OEMs are shipping partitioned hard drives in an effort to encourage customers to keep documents on the other partition.  

@anonymous – A number of blogs have gone through all the options in the new taskbar.  As you will see in the beta, while we don’t switch to “XP” mode we do support the notion of text labels, grouped/ungrouped windows, etc.  So I think if you want to look “comfy” you certainly can.  FWIW, I am definitely at the point where switching “back” now hurts :-)

@bluefisch200 – we will have a number of new keyboard shortcuts.  Also, we have specifically worked on grouping 1000's of files in explorer.  Stay tuned!

@snaven – send those cards and letters to Apple!  Device Stage is open to all hardware manufacturers.

Phew...

--Steven