Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s Chief Executing Officer (CEO), delivered a keynote address on Wednesday, the night before the beginning of the 2009 Cosumer Electronics Show (CES) that will spread from 8 to 11 January in Las Vegas, thus replacing tycoon Bill Gates, who gave his final CES speech earlier this year.

During the event, Ballmer had some big announcements to make, of  which the most important was obviously the one concerning Microsoft’s new operating system Windows 7.

The OS that promises to make amends for Vista’s shortcomings has been officially launched in beta version to MSDN and TechNet subscribers, and it is said to be much similar to the one that leaked to the Internet not long ago. Consequently, many have voiced their opinion that the appearance of Windows 7 on BitTorrent had actually been a PR stunt pulled by Microsoft.

The Windows 7 OS is to be made available for download to general users worldwide on Friday, January 9.

Charlotte Jones, a Group Project Manager, demoed for the audience some of the features of the new operating system, including the touch screen technology with which Windows 7 is fitted and that translates as a major addition.

Nevertheless, no information regarding the memory footprint of Windows 7 or its compatibility, as well, has been given out, two issues that have raised many concerns among users, mainly due to the fact that the latter were Windows Vista’s major shortcomings, especially when it had only been released.

A full version launch for Windows 7 is expected in 2010, although pundits have stated they forecast a mid-2009 roll out.