The Windows 7 platform makes it easy for developers to create engaging, user-friendly applications by providing familiar tools and rich development features that allow them to take advantage of the latest PC capabilities.

Windows 7 is the most reliable version of Windows yet. Designed on an improved technology foundation, Windows 7 allows users to reliably start up, shut down, or hibernate their computers without having to worry about losing valuable work. Furthermore, Windows 7 makes it easier than ever to back up and restore data to network drives or DVDs. Windows 7 also improves upon print reliability and performance.

Applications

To help ensure compatibility, Windows 7 has been designed in close partnership with software vendors and PC manufacturers. Early engagement has enabled Microsoft to build a comprehensive list of the most widely used applications. Automated testing cycles ensure that compatibility issues are detected and fixed early in the development cycle.

Drivers

The Windows Driver Kit (WDK) Version 3.0 provides the build environment, tools, documentation, and samples that developers need to create quality drivers for Windows. The WDK 3.0 supports static source code analysis, using PREfast to detect certain classes of C and C++ coding errors. PREfast includes a specialized driver component, known as PREfast for Drivers (PFD), which detects errors in kernel-mode driver code. In addition, the WDK has been enhanced by annotating all kernel header files for PFD support. New sample drivers have been added that demonstrate new technologies, and the documentation has been expanded.

Windows 7 supports a large variety of software and hardware products designed to integrate seamlessly with the platform. Drivers that were created for Windows Vista should not require updating to run correctly in Windows 7.

Devices

Windows 7 provides flexible, robust support for a wide variety of applications and devices, including music players, storage devices, mobile phones, and other types of connected devices. Automatic testing of these devices is used to ensure that compatibility issues are fixed early in the development cycle.

Reliability Access Monitor

Reliability Analysis Component is an in-box agent that provides detailed customer experience information on system usage and reliability. This information is exposed through a Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) interface, making it available for consumption by Portable Readers Systems. By exposing Reliability Analysis Component through a WMI interface, developers can monitor and analyze their applications, increasing reliability and performance.

Windows 7 uses the built-in Reliability Analysis Component to calculate a reliability index which provides information about your overall system usage and stability over time. Reliability Analysis Component also keeps track of any important changes to the system that are likely to have an impact on stability, such as Windows updates and application installations. You can use the Reliability Monitor snap-in to see trends in your system’s reliability index correlated with these potentially destabilizing events, making it easy to trace a reliability change directly to a particular event.

Performance

Windows 7 maximizes hardware energy efficiency and scalability while maintaining high performance. Energy efficiency is improved through reduced background activity and new support for the trigger starting of system services. Windows 7 also offers improvements in the Windows kernel that enable applications and services to scale efficiently between platforms. Performance of many features and APIs is improved in Windows 7 versus Windows Vista. For example, driver performance on servers is optimized by new user-mode and kernel-mode topology APIs. Graphics rendering is considerably smoother and faster. Accessibility performance is also significantly faster than before.

Building energy efficient applications that take advantage of the latest power management technologies is a significant challenge developers are facing today. Typically, processor and device manufacturers get all of the attention as their latest offerings are measured and benchmarked. However, a single application can easily prevent the latest generation of hardware from realizing its energy-efficiency potential. For example, a single application that increases the platform timer resolution can decrease battery life by 10 percent.

Extended operation on battery power and the use of energy efficient technologies are key requirements for today?s developers. Windows 7 greatly reduces the number of activities that the operating system performs that prevent use of power-saving modes. It also supports the trigger-starting of system services to enable processors to become idle more often and stay idle longer, which decreases power consumption. In addition, Windows 7 takes advantage of the latest energy-efficient hardware, including network adapters, storage devices, and graphics cards.

Windows 7 provides the infrastructure and tools that make it easy for developers to determine the energy impact of their applications. A set of event callbacks enable applications to reduce their activity when the system is on battery power and automatically scale up when the system is on AC power. For applications that involve a background process or service, Windows 7 features new infrastructure to automatically enable background tasks when most appropriate in order to maximize energy efficiency.

Security

Windows 7 includes new and improved security features that make it easier for developers to improve, use, and manage the security of their applications. It comes with a variety of new security features that not only help protect against threats but also limit the damage that attackers can do if they gain access to a computer.

Enhancements to the Windows Filtering Platform allow developers to create applications that interact with the packet processing in the networking stack of the operating system. Network data can be filtered and also modified before it reaches its destination.

Also, due to changes to the Windows privilege model, system security is more manageable by both developers and their end users. New improvements make it easy to identify critical prompts to ensure that users can access the applications and features they need without compromising their systems.

Windows Filtering Platform

In Windows 7, the Windows Filtering Platform has been enhanced to give developers more control over firewall functionality. The level of filtering has been increased and ISVs can now plug in custom protection and detection at lower levels. In addition, firewall developers can selectively turn parts of the Windows Firewall on or off.

Using Windows Filtering Platform, developers can build firewalls, intrusion detection systems, antivirus programs, network monitoring tools, and parental controls into their applications. Windows Filtering Platform integrates with and provides support for a wide variety of firewall features, including authenticated communication and dynamic firewall configuration based on applications’ use of sockets API (application-based policy). Windows Filtering Platform also provides infrastructure for policy management, change notifications, network diagnostics, and stateful filtering.

The initial architecture of Windows Filtering Platform in Windows Vista? provided capabilities for IP-based traffic. Other non-IP protocols?such as such as Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) and media access control (MAC)-layer protocols for network management and authentication?also require filtering, inspection, or logging. In Windows 7, an NDIS inspection layer that supports MAC and ETHERNET filtering has been provided to satisfy this need.

User Account Control

User Account Control is a security component in Windows 7 that allows developers to build applications that enable users to perform common tasks as non-administrators. Developers can reduce security risks by running applications under a standard user token, reducing the risks of mistakes or attacks.

User accounts that are members of the local Administrators group will run most applications as a standard user. By separating user and administrator functions while enabling productivity, User Account Control gives developers greater control over the level of access that users have over protected areas of an application. User Account Control requests credentials in a Secure Desktop mode, where the entire screen is protected to prevent spoofing of the user interface or the mouse