Windows 7 Gets Touchy With New Logo Program

As upset as some are with Microsoft and its Windows logo program, that’s not going to stop Redmond from continuing to make up new stickers to grace our desktop cases and our notebook palm rests.

The next Windows logo sticker to join the collection will be an important one, however, as it will certify a very important hardware requirement -- the ability to feel touch.

Windows 7 will bring with it full touch support of that not yet seen before in any Microsoft OS before it. Although Microsoft’s development of touch technologies impressed us all with its Surface, touch screen devices with Windows 7 has the chance to be far more ubiquitous.

A new Windows Touch logo will brand PCs and inform consumers that the hardware and all of its components are optimized for Windows 7’s touch technologies.

“Quite a few folks have been a little skeptical of touch, often commenting about having fingerprints on their monitor or something along those lines,” said Steven Sinofsky, senior VP of the Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group. “We think touch will become broadly available as the hardware evolves and while it might be the primary input for some form factors (such as a wall mounted display in a hospital, kiosk, or point of sale) it will also prove to richly augment many scenarios such as reading on a convertible laptop or a ‘kitchen PC’.”

On the latest Windows 7 Engineering blog, the development team detailed the requirements needed to qualify for the logo, which include 43 separate tests for quantitative aspects of the device, such as accuracy, sample rate, and resolution.

“For Windows 7, touch support is engineered by building on our advances in input technology we began with the TabletPC work on Windows XP.  Touch in Windows 7 requires improvements in hardware, driver software, core Windows user experience, and of course application support,” added Sinofsky. “By having this support in an open platform, consumers and developers will benefit from a wide variety of choices in hardware, software, and different PC form factors.”

Work is still being done to finalize the Windows Touch logo program, which Microsoft said will come together with the Release Candidate when OEMs and IHVs will be able to run their tests. See this video for a short demonstration of touch inside Windows 7.