• Windows 7 Wallpapers
• Vista Wallpapers
• Windows Wallpapers

With the Technology Preview development milestone Microsoft marks the first step toward the RTM of the next iteration of the Office System, which is planned for the first half of 2010, along with GA (general availability). Between Technical Preview and RTM, the software giant will also release a public Beta of Office 2010, at an unspecified date later this year. But for the time being, even with the CTP of Office 2010 not offered to the Technical Preview limited testing pool, the bits are up for grabs in the wild, having been leaked to torrent trackers, just as the builds of Windows 7.

On May 19, Reed Shaffner, Office TPM, indicated that Microsoft was in no way ready to release the Technical Preview bits of Office 2010, and that the official CTP would include additional “details” in comparison to the leaked version. Furthermore, Shaffner warned that the software giant was monitoring the leaked copies of Office 2010 and that it had detected quite a few infected with malicious code. At the same time, some of the websites that had initially posted links to leaked copies of Office 2010 removed the content after being contacted by Microsoft.



Office 2010 Installation

Installing Office 2010 no longer feels like the installation of a full operating system. The speed of the deployment process is impressive, especially if the underlying hardware configuration is tailored to Windows 7. Speaking of which, as you can see from the screenshots, I have installed Office 2010 CTP on top of Windows 7 Release Candidate Build 7100. The test computer's hardware specifications are not all that impressive; it manages to score just 3.0 with the Windows Experience Index, still it does have over 3 GB of RAM and an x64 AMD 2.0 GHz processor. Office 2010 installs fast and smooth in just a few minutes, even though it is just a Technology Preview. Immediately after the installation users will get a chance to send Microsoft either smiles or frowns along with screenshots, and their comments via the program's feedback mechanism.



Office 2010 graphical user interface

Back in 2007, some might remember, Microsoft marketed Office 2007 and Windows Vista under the slogan “better together.” With Windows 7 due in October 2009 and Office 2010 in H1 2010, a joint marketing effort for the two products might be a tad of a challenge, but even from the CTP it is clear that the next iteration of the Office System is tailored to the next version of Windows. For example, Windows 7 attempts to make the Ribbon/Fluent graphical user interface pervasive, and the GUI has spread to all Office 2010 programs.

Initially introduced with Office 2007, the Ribbon was leaped forward in terms of GUI design, and has now evolved to be more subtle, leaner, and better integrated with Windows 7. Users will also be able to notice that the Office Orb featured in the 2007 version of the suite has been replaced by buttons with the individual icon/logo for each specific solution. Color coded in accordance with the visuals of the Office 2010 applications (blue for Word, green for Excel, etc.), the buttons act like start menu for each program. Clicking them displays a menu window complete with a range of options from Save and Save as to New, Print and Options.