February 26th, 2009

Posted by Mary Jo Foley

Windows 7 testers wanted more feedback from Microsoft. It looks like they’re getting it.

In a February 26 post to the Engineering Windows 7 blog, Microsoft itemized some of the changes that it is making to Windows 7 that will be part of the Release Candidate (RC) test build that is widely expected in April.

From the blog post introduction by Windows chief Steven Sinofsky:

“(W)e want to start posting on the feedback and the engineering actions we’ve taken in responding to the feedback.  We won’t be able to cover all the changes (as we’re still busy making them), but for today we wanted to start with a sampling of some of the more visible changes.”

The post goes on to detail some of the Windows 7 changes Microsoft is making in response to tester feedback — in the task bar, Media Player, networking, touch, the Windows Explorer and overall performance.  Given that Windows 7 was deemed “feature-complete” as of the public beta that Microsoft released in January, the changes coming between then and the Release Candidate are largely cosmetic. (At least it seems that way to me….)

A number of Windows 7 testers have complained recently that Microsoft was not sharing enough information about changes it planned to make in response to their feedback.

Windows SuperSite’s Paul Thurrott questioned in a post yesterday buy cheap generic viagra color=”#004d99″>whether Microsoft had already locked down Windows 7’s feature set before the majority of technical and public beta testers ever got to see a first release of the product. I’ve wondered the same.

It’s great Microsoft is starting to share feedback with the thousands, if not millions, of testers who take their time to help the company find and fix bugs and usability problems. But Thurrott’s question is still a good one.

Windows 7 testers: Is this feedback that Microsoft is providing enough? Any other specific features/areas you’d like to see addressed in the future?