Posted 09/18/08 at 03:54:58 PM by Mark Edward Soper

It's not a sports score, but it might be even more important to tech fans: Windows 7, Milestone 3 is the current progress "score" for Windows 7, the next generation of Windows (milestones are internal test builds used to develop and debug features before beta testing begins).

So, what's inside W7M3 (also known as Build 6780)?

Castles, a simplified version of domain control designed for home networks but pulled from Windows Vista before it went out the door, is in Windows 7 but is now called Home Groups.

PowerShell v2, aka Graphical Console, is also in the mix for scripting fans (a preview for XP and Vista users is available now).

WordPad and Paint no longer look like leftovers from Windows 3.1 - they're getting a cleaned-up version of the ribbon UI introduced in Office 2007. Here's more about what's new and different. What's the big deal? According to Softpedia, the so-called Fluent/Ribbon interface is the future of Windows and Windows apps.

It looks as if the first formal beta of Windows 7 will be launched before the end of the year, with some observers speculating  that Windows 7 might be available sometime between June and September 2009. So, what do you think?

Do you like the foretaste of W7's user interface? Are you looking forward to Windows 7, or do you suspect, as InfoWorld's Randall C. Kennedy opines, that "it's doomed to failure?" Hit the jump for your chance to comment.

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Posted 09/15/08 at 07:57:06 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Usually all auguries of keenly anticipated technologies originate from anonymous sources, and yet excitement mounts with every unsubstantiated bit of news. Keeping that tradition alive, rumors related to Windows 7 are escalating. Now, according to a report on ZDNet, Windows 7 beta 1 won’t arrive in October/November, as the website previously speculated, but in December.

The report that cites unnamed sources – no surprises – further claims that Microsoft has supplied some of its most intimate customers and partners with alpha builds of the OS designated M1 and M2 (M stands for milestone); M3 is in the works per the sources. A beta release by the end of this year will almost ensure the release of Windows 7 in late 2009 or early 2010; therefore, this delay won’t have a huge impact on Windows 7 release plans.

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