Announcing New Tools for IT Professionals & Developers Transitioning to Windows 7

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Today I am pleased to announce some new technologies to help developers and IT professionals make the transition to Windows 7.

For developers, we are announcing the public beta for the Platform Update for Windows Vista. The Platform Update for Windows Vista is a set of runtime libraries that makes it easy for developers to target both Windows 7 and Windows Vista. The Platform Update for Windows Vista includes:

• Windows Ribbon and Animation Manager Library: contains the Windows Ribbon API, a command framework that enables developers to quickly and easily create rich ribbon experiences in their applications, and the Windows Animation Manager API, an animation framework for managing the scheduling and execution of user interface element animations.
• Windows Graphics, Imaging, and XPS Library: components for developers to leverage the latest advancements in modern graphics technologies for gaming, multimedia, imaging and printing applications. It includes updates to DirectX to support hardware acceleration for 2D, 3D and text based scenarios DirectCompute for hardware accelerated parallel computing scenarios and XPS Library for document printing scenarios.
• Windows Automation API: allows accessibility tools and test automations to access Windows user interface in a consistent way across operating system versions.
• Windows Portable Devices Platform: supplies the infrastructure to standardize data transfers between an application and a portable device, such as a mobile phone, digital camera, or portable media player.

Please note that the Windows Automation API will also be made available as a separate download for PCs running Windows XP.

Source: Windows Team Blog