Today: Windows 7 Build 7068

So far, other than the expiration date, I'm not seeing any differences between 7057 and 7068. It's a little bit disappointing but I probably wouldn't expect much new until the RC leaks. By the way, even though you can install any of the different Win7 versions with build 7068, the only one that will work with the free CPP product keys is Ultimate.

Saucy, it's part of the strange culture in which links are important and content is there to fill the spaces between the links. I see that MS has hired one of Apple's release note writers to do the Description placeholders.

Oh, come on, Paul. All "real" tech journalists are busy coming up with conspiracy theories about MSFT's new advertising campaign and all you can do is to talk about a Windows build?

Saucy Back in the ancient days of blogging - say in 2003 or so - the purpose of a web log (or "blog") was intended to be a place where you would provide a list of web sites you had visited along with your short comments on the article. People would use your blog as a kind of table of contents to what was on interesting on the web and the idea was that you would follow people with similar interests to yours and help each other discover what was interesting on the web. As a courtesy, you would leave a link on the original article pointing back to your comment so the original author would be able to see who was commenting on his article and so that other people could find related blogs. This was known as a linkback or postback or pingback. The practice died when blogs took off not as originally intended but as a way to do short articles instead and these backward reference links passed into history. Paul's software, however, still supports that protocol. For example, the Pingback directly above your question links to a comment on Paul's article by a blogger named Stephan Walcher writing a blog (in German) named "Windows 7" out of Bolzano, Italy.

mikegalos I think the "pingback" reference is lot older than 2000. cheers.

So darkmax didn't even read the artice?

Thanks for explaining.

kenmcnamee Daily builds are typical (but not quite universal) at Microsoft.

Darkmax: That's trolltastic. You're right though. Everyone at Microsoft have combined their talents over the last coupla months to create a single new menu screen. End sarcasm. Seriously, I kinda broke my own rule here, but let's try not to feed the troll.

I upgraded today from 7057 to the new 7068 and I noticed a couple of things that are different: * The Windows Search Service now correctly works with Outlook 2007 * When logging on the notepad always started automatic, with the new build this is not anymore the case. * This build seems to be more polished and works a bit faster than the previous builds. The upgrade took 90 minutes

hmm... didn't know I was trolling.... actually I don't quite understand what the term "troll" means here. I'm really old school. anyway, until I can get my hands on the build, I can only say as much as that. They might have already change or tuned the internal workings to a finer degree.

So, they're been enough Apple/Microsoft flames here for a while and I'm NOT trying to start one again. But, for the love of God, FIVE versions. I thought they might have learned better. It's corporate DNA, I guess.

@waethorn: "Yes, it was a typo. The "n" key on a Microsoft Wireless Laser Keyboard 6000 is twice as wide as the "m" key. I'm not "cool" enough to be in the turtle-neck crowd and have a spell-checker for my browser. See if I care though" You can start by getting a spell-checked in your browser. Maybe then it will also be OS wide, a la OS X. I'm sure Microsoft have it in their roadmap, along with many other things to copy from OS X.

chuck "So, they're been enough Apple/Microsoft flames here for a while and I'm NOT trying to start one again. " Actually, chuck, your history here says that is precisely what you are trying to do.

I don't know what it is about screenshots but I love looking at them. The wallpaper used Windows 7 Home Premium is nice. Maybe a little too red for my taste but the leafs and color are nice.

@dipshtadmin: "Who's "they" that you mention about being able to take over a machine? How many corporations use a Mac?" They is the hacking contest held recently. A Windows 7 machine running IE8 was completely taken control of: "world’s most widely used browser to take full control of a Sony Vaio machine running Windows 7" http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2934 So that's who they are. The greatest OS and browser from Microsoft results in your machine being taken over. Great stuff, Microsoft.

@mikegalos: "Since neither the pingback protocol nor blogging itself existed until 2002 and since the XML-RPC protocol which is core to pingback and related technologies wasn't invented by Microsoft until 1998 (hardly "a lot older than 2000"), it's fairly likely you're just mistaken." Invented by Microsoft? Did you forget to mention that it was invented by Microsoft AND Dave Winer? Or is this how Microsoft hijacks technologies and take them hostage as their own?

@runner7775: Windows has always looked ugly. No change there. Only 5 versions of Windows 7? MSFT still can't even get that right.

This doesn't look any different than Vista's SKUs, really. I wish they'd go back to the XP era of Chocolate and Vanilla,... and put Media Center front and center in both. (put the Zune marketplace as part of MC where people could buy/rent movies, TV shows, and music).