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"  Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer delivers the keynote address at the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show. (Photograph by David McNew/Getty Images)  Las Vegas\u2013 Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave his first keynote at CES on Wednesday, providing a curious parallel to this year&amp;#039;s MacWorld. Although it must be said that Apple CEO Steve Jobs has proclaimed quite publicly that, despite his break from keynoting for this last gathering he has no intention of relinquishing the reins of Apple, while CES staple Bill Gates turned over the CEO position at Microsoft to Ballmer almost nine years ago, yet continued giving the keynote speech until last year.   I&amp;#039;ll start by saying that neither man is as talented a presenter as his predecessor. Phil Schiller, the VP of product marketing for Apple, is so gee shucks impressed by his own company that he seems like the most wide-eyed of Apple&amp;#039;s own fanboys. Ballmer, on the other hand, sounds, believe it or not, even more whiny and awkward than Gates did in his heyday, and Ballmer has a famous ability to look crazed and sweaty on stage. This CES keynote was far more restrained than his YouTube hijinks would lead you to expect from him.   Plus, this year, Ballmer had better material to present than Schiller. Schiller&amp;#039;s most exciting announcement was a removal of digital rights management on iTunes songs. Balmer, on the other hand, has a whole new operating system, Windows 7, to demonstrate. (Although it&amp;#039;s worth noting that both major announcements are responses to consumer annoyances with existing products\u2014iTunes was hobbled by DRM, PCs have been hobbled by, well, Vista.)   Ballmer proclaimed that Windows 7 promised to be the best version of Windows ever, and, given the demos that I saw at the keynote as well as previous looks PM has had, he may be right. Windows 7 has a whole new organizational logic\u2014switching between windows is easier, and a swipe to the lower right corner of the screen allows you to peak through all the windows for a look at your desktop. Within programs, jump lists bring up popup menus from the taskbar with a list of commonly- or recently-used tasks from each program.  Windows 7 will also have multitouch functionality, letting users navigate with touchscreens if they have them. Obviously, the idea is to encourage a new generation of natural human interface computer hardware by building support into the OS.   And, finally, the system will have more logical networking. Windows 7 ties devices together better\u2014or, at least, it does in demos\u2014allowing users to accomplish snazzy tricks such as pushing content from one device (say a song on a PC) to play on another (say an Xbox) with drag-and-drop simplicity.   Of course, the biggest promises Ballmer made about Windows 7 are the ones we&amp;#039;ll believe only when we&amp;#039;ve tested the OS on real consumer equipment. Windows 7 is supposed to be faster-booting and have fewer alerts. Solve that, and Windows will no longer be so easily mocked in Apple ads.   Beyond Windows, there were plenty of other announcements\u2014a Windows Live partnership with Facebook that allows updates on Windows Live to auto-update the user&amp;#039;s Facebook page; cool new touch-table functionality and flexible screens out of Microsoft Research; plus two new Halo games coming this year\u2014but the future of the company surely depends on getting Windows right. Ballmer can be an awkward speaker and a hothead some times, but it&amp;#039;s good to see that, on his first keynote, he made sure the audience knew that Microsoft is paying attention to the operating system that made it such a juggernaut in the first place. \u2014Glenn Derene   RELATED STORIES \u2022 EARLIER: Phil Schiller Delivers Final MacWorld Keynote  \u2022 MORE CES: Live @ the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show   "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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