Posts Tagged ‘PDC’

With PDC 2009 right around the corner, you can probably bet the farm that Windows Mobile 7 will be unveiled there. Every PDC has consisted of major announcements and this one shouldn’t be any different. With Windows 7 out of the door, Office 14 all-but-complete, and Zune HD hitting the shelves soon, Windows Mobile 7 stands as the last really hot item to not be even so much as acknowledged by Microsoft. Well, I’m going to take it one step further and guess that Microsoft is not just going to reveal Windows Mobile 7, but they may even make a pre-release build of Windows Mobile 7 available at PDC. The reason I’m stepping out on that limb is comprised of 3 reasons:

1. Microsoft has a history of putting the bits of the technologies revealed during their keynotes into the hands of attendees at its conferences. If Windows Mobile 7 is revealed there and history is any kind of indicator, some form of the mobile OS will find its way into the hands of attendees.

2. The following Windows Mobile 7 roadmap I posted back in May which verified similar info Mary Jo Foley posted about back in February of Microsoft planning for a release to testers in November (the same month as PDC, no less):

3. The latest work experience status from the following LinkedIn profile of a Motorola employee has a rather interesting mention in it: “Runtime Environment: Windows Mobile 7.0 (Beta)“ Hmm… Does that mean Windows Mobile 7 has already hit an internal stage of Beta 1?

The aforementioned gives me good reason to speculate that Windows Mobile 7 will not only be revealed, but it will also be put into the hands of attendees in *some* capacity. I say, “some” capacity because I wouldn’t put it past Microsoft to strip it of certain features (or disable them) – just as they’ve typically done with the Windows pre-release builds they’ve distributed at past conferences. The only problem I see with that hypothesis of mine is the number of people who could actually do something with those bits. We don’t all exactly have a spare Windows Mobile device hanging around for us to install a build of Windows Mobile 7 on. Actually, that gives me an idea that maybe, “the goods” could include something that would serve the purpose of using a Windows Mobile 7 build… probably not, but it would be cool if so!

With that in mind, I’m also going to guess that Windows Mobile 7 will meet a similar fate as Windows 7 where conference-attendee interaction is concerned: Once it’s announced during a keynote on either day 1 or day 2, there will be a number of Windows Mobile 7-ready devices on-hand for all to see up-close and fiddle with.

How different do you personally think the UI is going to be from Windows Mobile 6.5? Do you think it’s going to resemble the old WM7 prototype images that have been floating around out there for quite a while, or do you think it will be completely revolutionary? I’ve heard rumors from a couple of people that its interface will be the same as the Zune HD’s interface. I guess we will all find out soon enough!

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

(Follow me on Twitter: msftkitchen)

The Windows 7 build that PDC attendees will be given is M3 Pre-Beta build 6801. The exact build string is yet to be determined, but after doing some digging around, I think I’ve found it: Build 6801.winmain_win7m3.081020-1655

Now, just where in the world did I pull that build string from? The back of a milk carton? My butt? The Windows dev building in Redmond (I wish, lol)? Nawwwww. Microsoft threw some security updates on their site for Windows 7 a few days ago, so I downloaded them and checked out the build version of the DLL the updates replace (netutils.dll). This is the version as it exists in the DLL: 6.1.6801.4107 (winmain_win7m3.081020-1655)

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Microsoft’s build string terminology, the string reads as follows: Windows 7 M3 (Milestone 3) Build 6801 compiled in the WinMain lab on October 20, 2008 at 4:55 PM (081020-1655)

Even more interesting is that they provided a security update for three versions of the Windows 7 Pre-Beta (click each one to be taken to the download pages):

Windows 7 Pre-Beta (x86)
Windows 7 Pre-Beta x64 Edition
Windows 7 Pre-Beta for Itanium-based Systems

So, does that mean that PDC attendees will be receiving all of those versions? Perhaps! Something else left to be determined is if build 6801 will contain all SKUs or just Enterprise.

Now, something else worth noting is the following: Build 6919.fbl_fun_diag_dev(gaurava).080118-1456

That build was compiled 9 months prior to this 6801 build and is over 100 builds higher!!! This is no surprise to those of us who are familiar with the fact that not all the build labs follow the same build time line but it’s interesting to know that builds were compiled in January with that high of a build string. Oh yeah, I pulled that one out of my butt. lol. Only kidding. Seriously, though, I pulled that build string from another DLL provided by Microsoft for Windows 7 in relation to printing issues (DiagPackage.dll). You can find it here: “This troubleshooting pack detects and fixes the printer problems on Windows 7″

Well, that’s all for now! Off to pack for PDC and make last-minute preperations prior to flying out tomorrow. Don’t forget to keep up with my PDC 2008 Blog! Much, much more to come very, very soon. =)

-Stephen

(Follow me on Twitter: msftkitchen)

Going to PDC 2008 this year? Expect to recieve the Windows 7 M3 build on the following:

Lucky… lol.

Reference: Steve Clayton: Geek In Disguise

-Stephen