As was expected by most, Microsoft announced the availability of the public beta of Windows 7 at CES 2009 in Las Vegas today.  If you’re a TechNet, TechBeta or MSDN customer, you can download the Windows 7 beta today.  The rest of us can get our copy of the Windows 7 beta for free starting January 9th.

According to the official Microsoft press release:

With Windows 7, Microsoft paid special attention to performance, reliability, security, compatibility and battery life. The company is on track to deliver a great experience that will allow customers to spend more time doing the things they want to do, without the operating system getting in the way.

Hmm.  Special attention to compatibility, eh?  Does that mean Windows 7 will support older hardware and software better than Windows Vista?  And what’s that point about “without the operating system getting in the way” – that sounds an awful lot like those annoying User Access Control messages that people complained about with Vista.

In any case, it sounds like Microsoft is on target to release Windows 7 in the middle of next year, which may mean as I had written earlier that some business customers may never upgrade to Windows Vista at all, and instead go directly from Windows XP to Windows 7.

More details about Windows 7 are at Microsoft’s site: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/default.aspx

Filed under: Microsoft, Windows