Windows 7 was one of the dominating topics in Microsoft’s CES keynote and it seems that the company is on track to deliver the software by years end. TechNet subscribers received their beta copies this past Wednesday, and will see first hand how Windows 7 performs and test the new added functionality. A public beta release will follow this Friday. Despite the fact that it is still a beta, Ballmer said that he encourages “all users to download and install” the operating system.

The odd thing about this is that there was no mention of the word “Vista”. Is Microsoft’s getting ready for a burial of Vista OS? I wouldn’t doubt it as Vista reminds me of Millennium, a buggy and out of the gate to fast OS. Ballmer noted that Microsoft is “transforming Windows” to take advantage of an opportunity that “may be bigger than it was 25 years ago.

“We are on track to deliver the best version of Windows ever,” Ballmer said. He promised that Windows 7 will boot faster, provide more battery life in notebooks, run on netbooks and show fewer alerts.

An on-stage demonstration of the operating system included a new window tiling functionality, which allows users to put two windows next to each other while Windows automatically snaps them to the left and right edge so the content of each Windows can be compared side-by-side. All new features integrated in the desktop focus on reducing the number of clicks that are necessary to perform certain tasks.

The multitouch feature in Windows 7 also received an addition: Besides multitouch features known from the iPhone – such as pinch-zoom – Microsoft added more controls that, for example, let users tilt views in applications such as Virtual Earth.

Dead OS walking “Vista”