During his keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show here, Gates demonstrated new photo-editing tools and a revamped media player designed to improve the way that Windows tackles the most commonly used media files. Gates also showed the improved remote-control experience that will be part of the Media Center edition of Vista.

Gates began his speech by noting his recent appearance, along with his wife, Melinda, and U2's Bono, as Time magazine's "Persons of the Year." He said there were other strong contenders. "Probably if there had been one more hurricane, Mother Nature would have been on the cover," he said. "For a lot of reasons I'm glad that didn't happen."