Although Microsoft showcased a much more feature-complete variant of Windows 7 pre-Beta Build 6801 Milestone 3 at the professional Developers Conference 2008 and Windows hardware Engineering Conference 2008 in Los Angeles the past couple of weeks, the bits that made it out of Redmond contained a variety of locked features across the operating system. In all fairness, the software developers and hardware manufacturers participating at PDC 2008, respectively WinHEC 2008, have little use for details of Windows 7 which are mainly connected with the user experience, graphical user interface and interaction model. However, those features are indeed included in Windows 7 pre-Beta Build 6801, albeit unfinished, and a hack is now available to unlock them.

Windows' Rafael Rivera put together the Blue Badge tool to deliver a workaround the protections set in place in Windows 7. The hack is designed to unearth all the hidden Windows 7 features that have been identified so far. The workaround supersedes the initial tool limited to unlocking only the Windows 7 new Taskbar, dubbed the Superbar within Microsoft.

Following the implementation of Blue Badge, users of Windows 7 pre-Beta Build 6801, which following its limited official launch was leaked and made available for download via torrent websites worldwide, users will have access to the new Taskbar, as well as Aero Shake gestures, panning, and the Desktop Slideshow.

As a general development rule, Microsoft integrates the graphical user interface evolution last in a new iteration of the Windows client. And with features like the new Taskbar still in development, the company's move to lock them is understandable. Microsoft did promise that the first, an apparently only Windows 7 Beta due in early 2009, would be feature complete. In this context, users will not have to wait too long before getting a full taste of Windows 7.