After seeing all the great new technology at the PDC in LA last week, I’m very excited to get started on my holiday shopping! Earlier this year, I bought my wife a new Windows 7 PC, which has now inspired me to think about what other electronics and software we may need this holiday.
The challenge with shopping this year is there are simply so many fantastic products to choose from. So here is my advice – looking for products that have earned the “Compatible with Windows 7 logo” is the best way to know the product will work as expected and give you a great experience. These products have passed Microsoft designed tests for compatibility and reliability with Windows 7 including testing for common issues to minimize the number of crashes, hangs and reboots. With the growing number of Windows 7 PCs running 64 bit, you can also be confident that any product displaying the “Compatible with Windows 7” logo also works on all versions of Windows 7, including 64 bit. Over 9,000 products have earned the logo so there is a logo’d product in every applicable category: anti-virus, printers, games, networking gear, cameras, digital picture frames, graphics cards, portable media players, productivity suites, monitors and displays, system utilities, and webcams.
How to find logo’d products –
#1 Check the status on the Windows 7 Compatibility Center
You can browse or search the compatibility center easily check which products have earned the logo. There are Windows 7 Compatibility Centers around the world to support you.
- Germany: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/de-de/default.aspx
- Spain: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/es-es/default.aspx
- Italy: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/it-it/default.aspx
- China: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/zh-cn/default.aspx
- Russia: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/ru-ru/default.aspx
- US: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/en-US/default.aspx
- France: http://www.microsoft.com/france/windows/windows7/compatibilite/
- Japan: http://www.microsoft.com/japan/windows/windows-7/compatibility/default.aspx
#2 Check the box on the shelf
Many manufacturers display the logo on their box- so you can simply check the box at retail. Here is a great example:
#3 Ask the retailer
You can simply ask any associate to direct you to products that display the “Compatible with Windows 7” logo.
#4 Look on retail sites
The logo is now displayed on 20 retailer websites. Here is just a sample of some popular sites displaying the logo:
1. Shopper.com
2. Buy.com
3. Staples.com
4. Zones.com
5. with many more coming soon…
Ok! I’m off to start my own holiday shopping!