It seems that the email on “translucency” sent out by Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, back in 2007, got lost in translation on its way to Microsoft China. Remember the leaked images featuring the new Windows 7 boxes?

Images with the concepts of the packaging for the retail copies of Windows 7 got leaked in the first half of May, featuring fresh visual interpretations of the Windows logo and a new logo built from the “7” number, a non-subtle reference to Windows 7, Microsoft's next iteration of the Windows client. It has already been confirmed that the box artwork is real, but now the new Windows 7 logo has started popping out on the Internet, with the software giant managing to offer official confirmation of its validity.

Microsoft China shamelessly displays the new 7 logo on its nook of the Windows website reserved for the successor of Windows Vista (via Long Zheng). As you can see from the screenshots attached to this article, the design matches perfectly the artwork on the Windows 7 boxes. Microsoft China has obviously jumped the gun when it comes down to publishing Windows 7-related artwork, because Sinofsky & Co. have failed to breathe a word so far as to the designs that would accompany Windows 7 to the market.

In addition to the Chinese Windows 7 website, Microsoft 7 is already using various promotion materials, including banners, DVD covers for Windows 7 Release Candidate Build 7100, and DVD artwork with the new “7” logo (via PCBeta). In this context, it is only a matter of time before the rest of Microsoft follows and unveils the official Windows 7 retail boxes along with visual concepts that will help define “7” for the consumers. But so far, the Redmond-based company is keeping mum on the matter, although the silence serves it no purpose any longer.

If you want to further speed up the Windows 7 boot process you could configure the computer system to automatically logon the user. This is especially for computer systems that are in use by only one person as it would not even be a privacy or security risk.

All that needs to be done to configure Windows 7 for automatic logon is the following:

Press Windows R. A command box should appear. Type control userpasswords2 and hit the enter key. This should display the User Accounts screen in Windows 7. Select the user account in the main table and uncheck the “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer. A click on the Apply button will open the Automatically Log On window. Enter the password and confirm it to add the password to the system so that it does not need to be entered during logon.

Windows Vista is without a doubt the most user experience oriented operating system ever to come out of Redmond. Windows Aero, although not as revolutionary and innovative as Microsoft is applauding it to be, is a new design in terms of graphical user interface and a divergent visual perspective in comparison to Vista’s successor, Windows XP, for that matter. And in addition to the graphical UI, Microsoft has also revamped the logon process. Microsoft failed to deliver the same volume of eye candy to the logon visuals as it did to Windows Aero, but in terms of small details, it really hits the spot.

And speaking of small details, there are a couple of visual tweaks delivered by Andreas Verhoeven, that will really serve to pimp up your desktop. In the screenshots included at the bottom you will be able to observe the details added through the deployment of Glass Toasts, Thumbnail Sizer and 3D User Picture. Trust me, it’s the little things that count, and Verhoeven simply took a few basic elements of Vista and tweaked them. (more…)

3d animated, 3d user, aero, basic elements, graphical ui, graphical user interface, logon, microsoft, revamped, taskbar button, thumbnail, toasts, tweaks, verhoeven, vista, visual perspective, Windows, windowsxp

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