Some customers acquiring new computers with Windows 7 will have a welcome surprise: they will receive a pre-installed and pre-registered copy of Microsoft Research AutoCollage Touch 2009, an advanced computer vision and image processing program which automatically creates collages of your pictures. This application showcases the same AutoCollage technology previously available through Microsoft Research AutoCollage 2008. However, the user experience has been modified to also showcase the touch and multi-touch capabilities of Windows 7.

AutoCollage Touch 2009 is not an upgrade to the previously released AutoCollage 2008 versions. While the user license for AutoCollage 2008 allowed customers to use their acquired product key to register the application on up to 5 machines, the license for AutoCollage Touch 2009 cannot be transferred from the machine in which it came pre-installed. At this time, AutoCollage Touch 2009 is only available pre-installed by OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers).

Customers that acquired AutoCollage 2008 from the Microsoft Store will continue to be supported by the Microsoft Research Community forum, and by the support email address for that application (acfeed at Microsoft.com). Meanwhile, customers that receive AutoCollate Touch 2009 pre-installed on a new machine should seek support through their OEM. The following page contains links to the contact information for OEM support teams: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/cambridge/projects/autocollage/support.aspx