Microsoft makes Windows 7 Touch Pack a free download

Windows 7 has built-in support for touch-sensitive displays, but the Windows 7 Touch Pack with applications to show off the technology has so far only been available to OEMs for pre-installation on new PCs. Until now, that is.

Apparently in response from customers, Microsoft has now made the Touch Pack for Windows 7 available as a free download for all. The 240Mb pack contains three games and three applications designed to help people get to grips with touch gestures:

• Microsoft Blackboard, an intricate game of physics in which you solve a puzzle by creating a fanciful machine on a blackboard.
• Microsoft Garden Pond, a tranquil game that takes place in serene Japanese water gardens.
• Microsoft Rebound, a game in which you use your fingertips to control Tesla spheres with an electrical field between them to catapult a metal game ball into your opponent's goal.
• Microsoft Surface Globe, a program that you can use to explore the earth as a flat 2-D map or as an immersive 3-D experience.
• Microsoft Surface Collage, a program that you can use to explore and interact with your photos and arrange them as a desktop background.
• Microsoft Surface Lagoon, a screen saver and interactive water simulation, complete with a meditative rock arrangement and playful, shy fish.

The catch is the Windows 7 Touch Pack only works on touch-sensitive displays that can detect at least two points of contact, which rules out the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t, for example, but not the ASUS Eee PC T91 or T101.

[ The Windows Blog]