At the ongoing Worldwide Partner Conference held in New Orleans, USA by Microsoft, the company announced that its upcoming client operating system, Windows 7 will be made available to its business customers through volume licensing starting September 1, over a month ahead of its worldwide commercial launch on October 22.

Starting September 1, business customers will be able to order the Windows 7 Enterprise variant through Microsoft Software Assurance licensing. The key features of Windows 7 Enterprise as listed by Microsoft are as follows:

• DirectAccess: Give mobile users seamless access to corporate networks without a need to VPN
• BranchCache: Decrease time branch office users spend waiting to download files across the network
• Enterprise Search Scopes: Find information on network locations including SharePoint sites with a simple user interface
• BitLocker & BitLocker To Go: Help protect data on PCs and removable drives, with manageability to enforce encryption and backup of recovery keys
• AppLocker: Specify what software is allowed to run on user's PCs through centrally managed, but flexible, Group Policies
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Optimisations: Improved user experience for VDI with multimon and microphone support. Plus the ability to reuse virtual machine (VHD) images to boot a physical PC
• Multi Lingual User Interface: Create a single operating system (OS) image for deployment to users worldwide