The first tool out of the gate, of course, was the Windows API Code Pack for the .Net framework. A nice library that makes it simple to write applications that take advantage of new Windows Vista and Windows 7 features like Libraries, Task panes and jump lists. Of course, that library has a major problem: it’s got an ugly and confusing license. Rather than using one of the standard Microsoft Open Source Licenses, the team used a license from the dark ages that features the vague “Excluded Licenses” clause and other ugly terminology.

More recently, Microsoft has announced a Platform Update for Vista which is intended to allow Vista to run most applications designed for Windows 7. The Platform Update is a set of runtime libraries which includes the Windows Ribbon control; Automation Manager Library; DirectX updates for hardware acceleration; DirectCompute for hardware-accelerated parallel computing support; the XPS printing library; the Windows Automation API; and the Windows Portable Devices Platform, which standardizes data transfers across apps and portable devices. This important package will be made available through Windows Update (and applications will be able to prompt you to download it) and it is in public beta with more information on the Windows Team blog. A couple of pieces of that will be made available for Windows XP; particularly the Automation API, which allows accessibility tools and test automation tools to access Windows user interface in a consistent way — this will mean that the next release of WASP will work flawlessly across Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7.

Also in the works is the Remote Desktop Connection 7.0 (RDC7) client for Windows XP and Windows Vista to allow these older clients to take advantage of all new server features in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008, including multi-monitor support and media redirection. There’s more information about that on the Remote Desktop team blog.

And finally, the release candidate for the Windows Management Framework (WMF) is also available. The WMF will include WinRM (Microsoft’s implementation of the WS-Management spec), PowerShell 2.0, and BITS for Server 2008, Windows Vista, Server 2003, and of course, Windows XP. This means that if you’re on Vista, or still using Windows XP, you can now upgrade from the PowerShell 2.0 CTP 3 to this release candidate and expect remoting to work!

All of these should be seeing final releases in the very near future, and some of them possibly by the time Windows 7 is released to the public.

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