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The Windows XP to Windows 7 (XP2Win7) reference application provides a tour of the unique Windows 7 technical features that enable developers to “light up” their applications on Windows 7. The XP2Win7 reference application features the Image Viewer, a WPF application that runs on XP. But the fun starts when you run the same application on Windows 7, which unlocks new technologies such as Taskbar, the Sensors and Location Platform, and Multitouch, as well as “old” Vista friends such as Application Recovery and Windows Search. This project shows that by exploiting Windows 7 features you can add a great deal of value to your application with relatively little effort and without sacrificing backward compatibility.

We designed this reference application as an “educational” project to show developers how to “light up” existing Windows applications by using built-in Windows 7 technologies without sacrificing backward compatibility for existing Windows XP customers. Our goals are to lower the bar for managed code developers who want to target Windows 7 native APIs and to show native code developers the new APIs. As a reference “educational” application, the application contains functionality that you do not normally find in regular applications, like a Crash button that will crash your application to demonstrate Windows 7 Restart Manager capabilities.

You can download the overview document to get a better understanding of the application capabilities and Windows 7 features that are being used.

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Project/Download/FileDownload.aspx?ProjectName=XP2Win7&DownloadId=6563