Microsoft Unveils 'Beta' Of Windows 7 at CES

Updated from 1:15 a.m. EST

LAS VEGAS -- With no secret code names, no letter smash-ups, Microsoft(MSFT) is just about set to unveil Windows 7. After Vista, which could have been codenamed "Piñata," CEO Steve Ballmer is surely hoping it is a lucky number for the software giant.

In the keynote address for the Consumer Electronics Show 2009 in Las Vegas, Ballmer told a crowd that waited more than two hours in line that a nearly final "beta" test version of Windows 7 will be available Friday for regular PC users to download and tinker with. If you try it, please email me at [e-mail], and we'll do an unscientific survey of your results.

Ballmer also pledged that Windows 7 will boot faster and drain laptop batteries more slowly.

"I believe Windows will remain at the center of people's technological solar system," Ballmer said. "We're putting in all the right ingredients: simplicity, reliability and speed, and we're working hard to get it right and to get it ready."

Any improvement in the performance of Vista will be a good thing for Microsoft's bottom line as users have been willing to pay more to the likes of Dell (DELL) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) for computers still running Windows XP.

Ballmer also confirmed the worst kept secret in Silicon Valley, a five-year partnership with Verizon Wireless , a unit of Verizon Communications (VZ) and Vodafone(VOD), that calls for the Live Search tools to be added to all Verizon cell phones in the U.S. that can access the internet. That bumps Google(GOOG) out of Verizon and Research in Motion's (RIMM) fast-selling answer to the iPhone, the BlackBerry Storm.