On Wednesday night, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is going to step on stage at the Venetian Hotel’s Palazzo Ballroom to give the keynote address that kicks off the Consumer Electronics Show. It’s the first time for Ballmer, who’s taking the slot that his predecessor Bill Gates has had for years.

It’s widely expected that Ballmer will publicly unveil Windows 7 Beta 1, just as Gates used the stage to announce previous Windows versions. He’ll no doubt have an entourage of product managers to help him do the actual demos, hopefully inspiring a wow or two from the assembled throngs.

I’m looking forward to the demo, even though I don’t expect any surprises. Mostly, I’m going to be listening between the lines, paying attention to the things that Microsoft chooses not to talk about. In the spirit of the occasion, I offer up the following predictions of things that Ballmer will take great pains to avoid saying.

1. “Some of you are going to hate our new OS, no matter what we do.”

Building software is part art, part science, and all compromise. Every design decision involves tradeoffs in performance, in ease of use for novices versus...

A blog posting on Microsoft's Technet by Keith Combs hinted on Tuesday that a beta version for the company’s new operating system Windows 7 would be made available as early as January, 2009.

The update is confirmed on the basis of a blog posting. Combs also recommended those who wanted to get hold of the Windows beta 7 to sign up for participation in the upcoming MSDN developer conferences.

The blog posting suggested that all who were to attend the aforementioned conferences would receive a DVD with Windows 7 beta 1 on it, adding though that the attendees for the December events would not benefit from the offer.

Keith Combs stated that the DVDs containing the beta version of Windows 7 would not be ready until January 13, the earlies

The company also said, "Windows 7 will offer more options than ever to customize and personalize Windows-based PCs with styles that match the user's personality," though it provided little detail.

Perhaps most significantly, Microsoft said applications that are compatible with Windows Vista will work with Windows 7 because the two operating systems share the same basic architecture. "Windows 7 extends developers' investments in Windows Vista,"...

Software could overshadow gadgets at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show, with Microsoft expected to shed light on its upcoming Windows 7 OS.

The financial meltdown may also be lingering topic as tech vendors gather to flaunt products at the show in Las Vegas, hoping to show enough glitter and sparkle to bring them better fortunes in the new year. Attendees will pour over the latest technologies, including OLED (organic light-emitting diode) TVs, netbooks, smartphones, media players, and other entertainment devices.

Audiences may miss the show's perennial star, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, who gave his final CES speech earlier this year. Instead, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will kick off the event with a keynote address on Jan. 7. He's expected to give a peek at Microsoft's Windows 7 OS, which many hope will be zippier and less resource hungry than Windows Vista.

Microsoft expects to make "significant" Windows 7 announcements, including a possible release of Windows 7 beta software. A "sneak peek" at future Microsoft Office software may also be offered.

A look at Microsoft's future software could add pep to what otherwise might turn out to be a subdued show. Attendance at CES...

Downloads of a new build of Microsoft Corp.'s upcoming Windows 7 operating system have soared in the past two days, with thousands of systems now pulling pirated copies from BitTorrent sites.

Searches today on the Pirate Bay BitTorrent site, for example, returned multiple listings of Windows 7 Build 7000, which Microsoft identifies as a beta candidate in the file name. The torrent is a disk image of the 32-bit version of Windows 7 Ultimate; a 64-bit version is not yet available.

The most heavily trafficked Windows 7 BitTorrent on Pirate Bay showed more than 4,300 "seeders" — the term for a computer that has a complete copy of the torrent file — and about 7,500 "leechers," or computers that have downloaded only part of the complete torrent. Less popular BitTorrents of the file on Pirate Bay claimed an additional 1,000 seeders and more than 3,000 leechers.

On Saturday, a day after the first copies of Build 7000 appeared on BitTorrent, Pirate Bay's prime listing showed less than half as many seeders as it did today.

Similar increases could be seen on other BitTorrent sites. For example, Mininova listed almost 20 Windows 7 BitTorrents — some...

According to Microsoft, pre-Beta development milestones of Windows 7 fail to play nice with USB network adapters that rely on pre-Windows Vista drivers. The symptoms involve NDIS 5.x USB network adapters not being displayed in the Windows 7 Performance Monitor. NDIS refers to the Network Driver Interface Specification library, which, following the transition from Windows XP to Windows Vista, evolved to version 6.0. Version 5 of NDIS was used by Windows operating systems before Vista.

“Perfmon only shows adapters that indicate that they have a physical, hardware connector. Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 introduced a new Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) known as NDIS version 6. Network driver developers are encouraged to move their drivers to this new specification,” Microsoft revealed.

The Redmond company does not have an update to resolve the issue, nor does it indicate that it plans a resolve. With not even a workaround made available for Windows 7, Microsoft is only advising users to make sure that the network adapter comes with drivers updated for NDIS version 6. The Redmond company explained that Windows 7 would be aware of all physical connectors as long as they were plugged in via NDIS miniports...

Beta 1 of Windows 7 has been leaked to the Internet, and those who have used it report that some of the more intriguing features of the new operating system, including the new taskbar, are finally in place.

Note that I haven't actually gotten my hands on the beta yet; I'll be giving it a full review in the coming weeks. Instead, I've checked out reviews from numerous sites such as Paul Thurrot's.

Most of what appears to be new is under the hood, including some performance improvements. But some of the new interface improvements seem to be put in place, including the following:

New Taskbar

The taskbar at the bottom of the screen now functions somewhat like Mac OS X's Dock. Large application icons on the taskbar launch programs when clicked on. You can customize which application live there. In addition, when you run applications, they run in the taskbar as well.

So far, the new taskbar has drawn some fire, with some reviewers complaining that it confuses icons for launching applications with icons for applications that are currently running.

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