Windows 7 to include multi-touch interface

As expected, Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer gave the world a first look at their next-generation OS, Windows 7, in a joint keynote conversation at D6 last night. They did not get into too many details in regards to the Vista successor, and instead focused on the touch and multi-touch integration of the OS, which takes many of its roots from the Surface Table that was presented at this same event last year.

Apparently Microsoft is reworking the whole user interface with a multi-touch experience in mind. In a demo, which was run live on a Dell Latitude XT tablet, Microsoft showed a new application called “Touchable Paint” that lets users paint with their fingers, as well as software to organize photos or navigate maps by touch – check out the demonstration video after the jump.

Besides the multi-touch feature, not much else was revealed, though this week we’ve learned that Windows 7 will build on the foundation laid with Vista and that there will be no new “minimum” kernel in Windows 7. The company also reiterated that they are still on track with shipping Windows 7 approximately three years after the general availability of Vista, which puts the launch of Windows 7 somewhere between late 2009 or early 2010.