Over at MSDN there has been published a (1) fairly comprehensive paper on development under Windows 7.
Some particular points of interest/new features include:
- "Windows 7 is designed to run on the same hardware as Windows Vista, and to be compatible with applications and device drivers that work with Windows Vista."
- "With Windows BranchCache, clients can retrieve data from other clients in their own branch that have already downloaded the data, instead of having to retrieve the data over remote servers. "
- "Built on the Sensor platform, the Windows Location APIs are a new Windows 7 feature that enables application developers to access the user’s physical location information. "
There is also attention to applications and power management:
"Windows 7 provides the infrastructure and tools that make it easy for developers to determine the energy impact of their applications. A set of event callbacks enable applications to reduce their activity when the system is on battery power and automatically scale up when the system is on AC power. "
If you hare any interest in developing for the new platform I’d highly recommend reading through the guide.
