Microsoft changes Windows 7 development process

In the past year, Mike Nash, global vice president of Microsoft's global Windows platform strategy, has been to China twice a quarter, mostly for communicating with Microsoft partners. As a Windows expert, Mike Nash has experienced several Windows product releases over the past 18 years. For Windows 7 development, Mike Nash said, "We have never been so hard."

November 5, Two weeks after the release of the new operating system, Windows 7, Mike Nash finally heard the news from the user feedback. Microsoft announced that 12 large Chinese companies have successfully deployed Windows 7.

Vista's defeat

Every time you release a new version of Windows, Microsoft is competing with itself, this time is especially difficult.

As a completely updated version of Windows XP, Win-dowsVista is the largest investment in Microsoft's Windows operating system, but due to poor compatibility, most users simply give up trying. So that this operating system with 50 million lines of code is called the biggest failure in the history of Microsoft software development.

Ding Yong, a 39-year-old software engineer, still remembers his friend complaining about his inability to manipulate the "frustration" of "Warcraft" games on Windows Vista.

In reflection, the next generation operating system, Win-dows7, began to be planned. In countries around the world, Microsoft collects a large amount of information about the behavior of businesses and individual users using Windows in order to optimize the operating system during the development of Windows 7.

AdamAnger, general manager of Windows Commercial Products at Microsoft Greater China, said that after working with independent market analysts, they visited the decision makers of 400 companies to optimize the functionality of Windows 7 through their feedback. . The goal is to "emphasize current and future needs in the new operating system, rather than doing it based on past needs."

In the past, from the Windows 95 to the Windows XP era, Microsoft only needed to find dozens of mainstream products on the market for testing to solve the compatibility problem.

Customer-led

In order to erase the shadow left by Vista. From the first day of development, Microsoft engineers were asked to clearly plan the prototype. The design concept of Windows7 consists of five parts, designed for service, designed for entertainment, designed for personalization, and easy to manage. Designed and designed for notebooks.

Intel (blog) internal IT department has been testing Windows7, and another chip manufacturer AMD began to cooperate with Microsoft in the development and testing phase of Windows7. At the beginning of this year, HP set up a global project team to train and support Windows 7 related products.

A year ago, Microsoft headquarters decided that more than 1,300 software compatibility tests and error debugging work in Windows 7 in 22 languages ​​other than English were handed over to Microsoft China R&D Group. In the past this work was done by the Microsoft Global Team.

Ding Yong, who has experienced the Vista test, found that from the time of Vista to the time of Windows7, it increased to more than 80 people. It was originally possible to "walk through the field" compatibility test and evaluation to be enforced in Windows 7 test. . If you find the problem, the person who debugs it will be there and you can solve it at any time. This is the first time in the history of Microsoft's operating system development.

Compatible first

Currently, 91% of applications, 92% of hardware devices and 95% of websites in the Chinese market are compatible with Windows 7. In this regard, Chen Chong, chairman of the Softening Industry Association, believes that "Windows 7 is a product that Microsoft began to listen carefully to the user's voice, which is a huge change for the huge industrial chain composed of Microsoft and Microsoft."

Compared with the Vista era, Windows7 partners have increased from more than a dozen to more than twenty. Wei Qing, General Manager of the Marketing Department of Microsoft China Consumer and Online Business Unit, and his colleagues worked with Chinese OEMs and partners for most of the year to ensure that their partners' products are compatible before Win-dows7 is released. .

The collaboration between Lenovo and Microsoft based on Windows 7 product technology around the world began in the first half of 2008.

Hua Shuo Computer EeePC Global Product Manager, ASUS Eee Family Product Manager Huang Guoyang believes that "Compared with Vista, the applicability of Windows7 can be seen in Microsoft's emphasis on the market." Windows7 performance in the Asus Eee family almost All products are reflected.