Windows 7 Battery issue – it ain’t the message, it’s the medium

I figured this was a non-event. Shows you what I know.

By now, no doubt, you’ve heard about the Windows 7 warning message “Consider replacing your battery. There is a problem with your battery, so your computer might shut down suddenly.” It’s a new message that didn’t exist in Vista, one that’s causing many people much angst. If you have a laptop running WinXP or Vista, and your battery’s been behaving properly, then you install Win7, and you suddenly get battery warning messages, you’re bound to think that Win7 has gone a bit bonkers.

I first saw the report on Ars Technica, which said that Microsoft was looking into the problem. I haven’t heard much about it – none of you have written to be about it – and figured it was another tempest in a teapot.

Kinda boring, actually.

Suddenly it isn’t boring any more. Why? Because Steve Sinofsky – the head Windows guy – posted a response to the allegations on the Windows 7 Engineering blog. That’s interesting.

This is very interesting: it’s the first post on the Win7 Engineering blog since August 10 – six months ago, long before Windows 7 shipped.

Is it possible that MS is going to use the E7 blog to keep up an ongoing dialog with its customer base?

If so, this is a great, new way to interact with us, keep us advised on the happenings inside the Windows team, in an official, reliable way. The E7 blog helped many of us understand the inner workings of Win7 during the development cycle. Maybe it’ll help while Win7’s out in the real world, too.

I hope it’s just the first post of many.