Speaking in Bill Gates' traditional role of CES keynote speaker, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer officially announced that a beta build of Windows 7 will be made available to the general public on Friday. MSDN, TechBeta and TechNet customers can download the beta as of today.

Microsoft also announced the availability of Windows Live, MSFT's suite of free applications for instant messaging, email, and viewing photos.

The Windows 7 Beta will be available for download here.

Will XP users finally have a good reason to upgrade? Will Win 7 be the Vista killer? Have your say in the forums!