Microsoft announced its full Windows embedded platform at ESC this week. The company is rolling out embedded editions of Windows 7, and an revamped version of Windows CE 6.0 called "R3." (note to Microsoft: Your marketing people are asleep at the wheel.)

The company will be offering three new editions of Windows embedded: Windows 7 Embedded Standard, Windows Embedded Enterprise and WIndows Embedded Server It released a preview of Windows 7 Embedded Standard 2011 at the beginning of the month. The purpose of having so many offering is that customers will have options to run Windows embedded from server to compact devices, said Ashwin Kulkarni, senior product manager for Windows Embedded.

Windows CE 6 R3 "adds high-tech value on top of the Windows CE foundation" for accessing cloud services and PC connectivity, said David Wurster, senior product manager of Microsoft's consumer team for Windows Embeddd. It also includes a scaled-down native code implementation of Silverlight 2.0 that renders outside of the browser. Embedded developers may use the standard Microsoft UI design paradigm, as well as its Expression tooling, he said.

CE 6 R3 (that's clunky isn't it?) also borrows from Microsoft's Zune HD media device. It uses the Zune tiling engine to scale Web pages down to compact screens, and it also bundles Adobe's Flash Lite. R3 also integrates Office document and PDF viewing, as well as touch and gesture capabilities from Windows 7.

OEMs can use the Windows 7 device stage controller to determine what happens when users synchronize their devices with PCs, and can predetermine the predominate solution for connecting to cloud services, whether it be WiFi or a mobile network.