Rolf Ebeling, a senior user experience lead for the User Experience Design and Research Team for Windows, Windows Live, and Internet Explorer, is the man who designed the 105-frame Windows 7 boot animation that millions see or will see every day for years to come. Along with developing the famous boot animation, he also helped with the appearance and functionality of the calculator. He's already confirmed that he'll be working on the next version of Windows.

Ebeling was only with the company for four months before he was asked to start designing what would become four swirling balls of light that come together to form a pulsing Windows 7 flag. Although the sketches of the early boot animation concept pictured above don't show it, Ebeling said he looked everywhere for inspiration, including street lights in the rain, light reflecting off water, and fireflies. A self-taught designer with a degree in English literature, Ebeling was a creative director for Newsweek.com in New York before joining Microsoft in April 2008, his first software job.

That means Ebeling started working on the Windows 7 boot animation in August 2008. It leaked to the Web in the form of a 24-second video in December 2008. Then, in February 2009, Microsoft announced that it would not support changing the Windows 7 boot animation by those who want to personalize their rigs further than just changing themes (you can read our guide to customizing Windows 7 with themes here.