Windows 7

Windows 7 is an operating system developed by Microsoft, and was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009. It is the client counterpart of Windows Server 2008 R2. Support of Windows 7 ended on January 14, 2020.

A pre-RTM build, 7600.16384, was speculated to be the final version of the product, but had a flaw in Internet Explorer 8 which prevented it from shipping.

New features in Windows 7 include mouse gestures for window management, an updated taskbar (Superbar), and other interface improvements.

New features
Windows 7 was not that of a major upgrade from Windows Vista as Windows Vista was from Windows XP but it nonetheless did introduce some new and updated features.
 * 1) Aero was improved from Windows Vista, now supporting full translucency in full screen mode of the program. Features like Aero Snap were also introduced.
 * 2) DirectX 11 was introduced.
 * 3) Windows Experience Index was improved, and now the maximum score obtainable is 7.9 (5.9 from Windows Vista).
 * 4) Multi-touch support introduced.
 * 5) Internet Explorer 8 introduced.
 * 6) Windows Media Player 12 introduced, using Windows 7 specific features like Jump Lists.
 * 7) The Windows taskbar and start menu was improved, introducing features like pinning on the taskbar and Jump Lists on the Start Menu. Show desktop has been implemented for the fist time since Memphis and NT 5.0 builds.
 * 8) The ability to warn the user about a bad battery was introduced.
 * 9) Support for SSD functions like TRIM was also introduced.
 * 10) Support for creating a homegroup was added, an implementation of Network Computer Sharing dropped in Windows Vista.
 * 11) Improvements to libraries and virtual folders.

Removed or degraded features

 * 1) The classic start menu can no longer be selected.
 * 2) System requirements were increased to 1 GHz (Windows Vista: 800 MHz, Windows XP: 233 MHz) and 1 GB RAM (Windows Vista: 512 MB, Windows XP: 64 MB).
 * 3) Windows Ultimate Extras were removed, and games such as InkBall were gone as well. However, the Ultimate edition of Windows 7 still included Windows Media Center, which was removed in all Windows 8 SKUs and had to be installed seperately.
 * 4) Explorer dropped a lot of the classic features present in XP and Vista.

Pre-Milestone 1

 * Windows 7 Build 6429.fbl_multimedia_media.070514-1730
 * Windows 7 Build 6469.1.fbl_find_dev(wexbuild).071002-1531
 * Windows 7 Build 6471

Milestone 1

 * Windows 7 Build 6519.1.winmain.071220-1525

Milestone 2

 * Windows 7 Build 6568.1.winmain.080312-1858
 * Windows 7 Build 6574.1.winmain.080???-????
 * Windows 7 Build 6589.1.winmain_win7m2.080420-1634
 * Windows 7 Build 6608.1.winmain_win7m2.080511-1400

Milestone 3

 * Windows 7 Build 6730.1.winmain.080612-1840
 * Windows 7 Build 6748.winmain.080710-2059
 * Windows 7 Build 6780.0.winmain_win7m3.080829-1900
 * Windows 7 Build 6801.0.winmain_win7m3.080913-2030

Pre-Beta

 * Windows 7 Build 6910.0.winmain.080915-1555
 * Windows 7 Build 6922.0.winmain.081003-1841
 * Windows 7 Build 6931.0.winmain.081016-1805
 * Windows 7 Build 6932.0.winmain.081017-1835
 * Windows 7 Build 6933.0.winmain.081020-1842
 * Windows 7 Build 6936.0.winmain.081023-1800
 * Windows 7 Build 6937.0.winmain.081027-1805
 * Windows 7 Build 6941.0.fbl_srv.081102-0300
 * Windows 7 Build 6948.?.fbl_shell_dex.081112-1755
 * Windows 7 Build 6951.0.winmain.081114-2042
 * Windows 7 Build 6953.0.winmain.081118-1923
 * Windows 7 Build 6956.0.winmain.081122-1150

Beta

 * Windows 7 Build 7000.0.winmain_win7beta.081212-1400

Pre-RC

 * Windows 7 Build 7004.0.winmain.081203-1830
 * Windows 7 Build 7012.0.winmain.081215-1810
 * Windows 7 Build 7013.0.?.081220-1600
 * Windows 7 Build 7015.fbl_multimedia_media.090104-1750
 * Windows 7 Build 7016.fbl_multimedia_media.090105-1500
 * Windows 7 Build 7022.0.winmain.090115-1850
 * Windows 7 Build 7025.0.winmain.090120-1850
 * Windows 7 Build 7032.0.winmain.090129-1812
 * Windows 7 Build 7048.0.winmain.090219-1845
 * Windows 7 Build 7051.0.winmain.090224-1840
 * Windows 7 Build 7055.0.winmain.090303-2130
 * Windows 7 Build 7057.0.winmain.090305-2000
 * ''Windows 7 Build 7062.0.winmain.090312-1900
 * Windows 7 Build 7068.0.winmain.090321-1322
 * Windows 7 Build 7070.0.winmain.090324-1853
 * Windows 7 Build 7077.0.winmain_win7rc.090404-1255
 * Windows 7 Build 7082.?.winmain.090410-1901

RC

 * Windows 7 Build 7100.0.winmain_win7rc.090421-1700

Pre-RTM

 * Windows 7 Build 7106.0.winmain.090408-1623
 * Windows 7 Build 7127.0.winmain.090507-1820
 * Windows 7 Build 7137.0.winmain.090521-1745
 * Windows 7 Build 7138.0.winmain_win7ids_sp.090523-2200
 * Windows 7 Build 7140.0.winmain.090524-1240
 * Windows 7 Build 7201.0.winmain_win7ids.090601-1516
 * Windows 7 Build 7225.0.winmain.090529-1930
 * Windows 7 Build 7225.0.winmain_sp.090529-2022
 * Windows 7 Build 7227.0.winmain_sp.090602-2110
 * Windows 7 Build 7229.0.winmain.090604-1901
 * Windows 7 Build 7231.0.winmain.090608-1900
 * Windows 7 Build 7232.0.winmain.090610-1900

RTM Escrow

 * Windows 7 Build 7260.0.win7_rtm.090612-2110
 * Windows 7 Build 7264.0.win7_rtm.090622-1900
 * Windows 7 Build 7268.0.win7_rtm.090701-1900
 * Windows 7 Build 7279.0.winmain.090627-1900
 * Windows 7 Build 7600.16384.win7_rtm.090710-1945

RTM

 * Windows 7 Build 7600.16385.win7_rtm.090713-1255

Service Pack 1 RTM

 * Windows 7 Build 7601.17514.win7sp1_rtm.101119-1850