Windows 7 RC – more to tell (+ SharePoint)

Had blogged recently about using Windows 7 – and with the Release Candidate out, I’ve now updated my home PC and laptop PC to use the new drop.

And – jeez, it’s amazingly good.  

Installation & driver setup took less than an hour – and the speed of the O/S is amazing (even the wife commented how fast it was !)

Some of the eye-candy bits are still cool – but wearing off w/ regard to “useful” – the wow’s are lesser.  

eg. the shake-and-hide is kinda fun, but haven’t really used it a lot.

I’m getting to see that “Jump Lists” are going to be great, once more applications bring it also – here’s the right-click context-menu for Live Messenger for example :

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Tech Ed 09 is currently underway in Los Angeles – always interesting to see what’s shown, and other stuff that I haven’t seen/heard – with Windows 7 (and Windows Server 2008 R2 also).

Just watching the keynote from Tech Ed – and there’s a LOT that I hadn’t seen/heard – here’s a few of my fave’s – and what I think will be helpful & useful (essential ?!?) within Windows 7 :

• DirectAccess – able to connect to a corporate network immediately via the internet – no need for VPN, or similar – will be great for those folk who spend a lot of time out of the office (like me).  Needs Windows Server 2008 R2 also (not surprisingly)
• BitLocker To Go – encryption and locking of USB devices, via group policy
• AppLocker – give admin’s control over desktop app’s – ie. allowed to run certain software from trusted publishers, certain versions, etc
• Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) – a huuuge topic on it’s own – a bunch of capabilities around application and desktop virtualization (MED-V) – able to use VM’s and VHD’s to host certain applications, and then use from a desktop as “just another app” – have to see it in operation

And – the one that got me “Big Kev Excited” :

• Search Federation – able to search across other data sources from within Windows 7 via Windows Explorer – such as SharePoint, File Shares, Google, etc.  Using the OpenSearch XML file format – very, VERY cool indeed

Have found some great blog posts on the last item – have just added a new search config file to my local PC (OSDX / XML) – took me 3-4 mins.

…and now I’m able to search the SharePoint intranet site from my home PC…(!)

What the ?!     That’s fricken’ amazing !   

Yes – I had to authenticate to be HTTPS’able – but only once, and has been cache’d away.    This will be awesome (seamless) within an office environment.

And was – literally – about 10 lines of XML – it just worked…

🙂

Here’s some examples & information about Federated Search in Windows 7 :

• Search Connector for Flickr (Long Zheng)
• Create a Windows 7 Federated Search provider for SharePoint – very easy indeed

Next one I’ll have to try is to have a search across Outlook and/or Exchange folders (InBox) – surfaced to use the Federated Search within Windows Explorer.

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And – yes, have blogged about something like this previously, but within Internet Explorer 8 – as opposed to within Windows Explorer / Windows 7 :

Search Provider for Twitter – from within Internet Explorer 8 

What other search providers would be useful to you ?