Firefox/Windows 7 Integration

Microsoft Windows 7 will be the next version of the Windows operating system. As with Vista, we should be looking at opportunities for richer system integration, as well as ensuring that we're not dependent on depricated OS features.

Changes in Windows 7

PDC 2008 had a lot of video coverage. Requires Silverlight/Moonlight to stream, WMV available.

• Quicklaunch toolbar is gone (Desk 43:48)
• Jump lists (Desk 29:05 and 36:58)
• Window/Tab previews
• systray/notifications/balloons back in user control

Things that we don't do correctly now

• With the removal of quicklaunch, we should hide the option in the installer when on Win7. There is no API to add Firefox (or any app) to the taskbar by design.
• The default jumplist will use the most recently used files as opened/saved via the standard file dialog. This is probably not desireable. IE shows history and some other ui actions.
• We should add large icons since they will be more common
• bug 462441

Things we should consider doing in the future

• We can show a progress bar on the app icon (details vague). Sounds like a good candidate for the download manager. (Desk 43:00)
• Tab preview like IE? (Desk 27:40)
  • Per window previewing is nice (Desk 25:20)
• Window previews ("Thumbnail toobars") can have UI controls added (Desk 40:22). By default they show title and a close button. Windows Media Player adds previous, play/pause and next buttons for quick control.
• Direct2D and DirectWrite look good
• Check that the Firefox icon looks good with hot track (Desk 34:48). "High DPI is a very important part of this release" - we should check that all icons look good at higher DPI.

Links

Windows 7: Welcome to the Windows 7 Desktop (Desk)

Windows 7: Integrate with the Windows 7 Desktop

Windows 7: Extending Battery Life with Energy Efficient Applications

Windows 7: Developing Multi-touch Applications

Windows 7: Writing Your Application to Shine on Modern Graphics Hardware

Windows 7: Introducing Direct2D and DirectWrite

Windows 7: Unlocking the GPU with Direct3D

Windows 7 Scenic Ribbon: The next generation user experience for presenting commands in Win32 applications.

Deep Dive: What's New with user32 and comctl32 in Win32