14 DAY TRIAL // The first Windows 7 Launch Parties got the green light the past week, and they all have one thing in common. According to Brandon LeBlanc, Windows communications manager on the Windows Client Communications Team, all the Windows 7 Launch Parties in the week of October 5th were hosted by Microsoft employees. LeBlanc noted that the Redmond company had sent Windows 7 Launch Party packages to a few thousand Microsoft employees. In fact, Microsoft employees were the only ones to host Windows 7 Launch Parties before the official release of the operating system coming on October 22nd. The public Windows 7 launch parties will come only after the Windows 7 general availability deadline.
“The Launch Party I attended last night was hosted by Dana Manciagli, a General Manager on Microsoft’s US OEM Team. Her Launch Party took place at The Parlor in Bellevue and she had her friend and fellow Microsoft employee (Cedric Dahl) demonstrate 7 key Windows 7 features such as many of the Windows Taskbar enhancements, Aero Shake and Aero Snap,” LeBlanc added. “The audience seemed to really like what they saw. One conversation I overheard was about how much better Windows 7’s window management is for applications. Another related to using Aero Snap to compare Excel spreadsheets.”
With the Windows 7 Launch Parties Microsoft is simply attempting to stir up interest in its latest iteration of the Windows client. All hosts received party packs from the software giant, containing a free Steve Ballmer signature edition of Windows 7, in exchange for their efforts around popularizing the successor of Windows Vista.
“At the Launch Party, I got to finally meet Laura Foy from Channel 9. She has posted an awesome video from the event including several interviews. Watch the video here. Overall, it was a fantastic event! I look forward to hearing more about people’s Windows 7 Launch Parties come October 22nd,” LeBlanc said.