Today at its Professional Developers Conference 2008 (PDC2008), Microsoft Corp. rallied software developers by sharing the first full public demo of Windows 7. Windows 7 extends developers' investments in Windows Vista and encourages the creation of new applications and services for the Windows platform. The company also delivered a pre-beta build of Windows 7 to PDC attendees and announced plans to release a full Windows 7 beta early next year.

Microsoft also demonstrated, for the first time, its new Web applications for Office, which are lightweight versions of Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote that are used from within standard Web browsers. The company showed how anyone can use all of the Web, phone, and PC versions of Office to edit the same rich document, switching among them seamlessly with lossless file compatibility.

Microsoft Corp. confirmed today that it will unveil Windows 7, the next major version of Windows, at PDC and provide developers and attendees with a pre-beta build of the operating system. During the Professional Developers Conference 2008 (PDC), Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, will keynote some of the Windows 7 features -including the kernel, networking, hardware and devices, and user-interface. Also, at this year's PDC, keynote attendees will be among the first to receive a pre-beta build copy of Windows 7. Additionally, attendees will have the opportunity to attend 21 different sessions that drill down into the details of developing for Windows 7. "Keynote attendees will be among the first to receive the pre-beta build of Windows 7," the company said.