WinEC7 Released!

Believe your eyes. You’re not mistaken. I didn’t write it backwards either. It’s not WinCE7, it’s WinEC7.

The name WinCE is history. To consolidate its embedded product line, Microsoft has integrated WinCE into the Windows Embedded family. The new name is Windows Embedded Compact 7, abbreviated WinEC7. Renaming is a good thing — at least now we know what EC stands for. What CE meant was anyone’s guess, even Microsoft couldn’t explain it clearly.

I wonder if media and publications will actually switch from CE to EC. Am I the first to coin the term WinEC? At least searching Google and Baidu for “WinEC” doesn’t show relevant content in the first few pages. Another easy “domestic first-class, internationally leading” achievement, yeah.

As an MVP, I’ve been downloading this code-named Chelan version of CE (or rather EC) from Microsoft’s Connect site. Under NDA restrictions, I don’t know what I can blog and what I can’t, so I’ll just keep quiet and get rich.

Microsoft released the WinEC7 CTP today. Everyone can download it at:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/products/windowsce/compact7.mspx

The new features are well described there, so I won’t repeat them.