Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates took the wraps off its next-generation operating system known as Windows Vista on Wednesday, displaying features aimed at positioning the software giant as the entertainment hub for a future of digitally connected homes.

Among the features of the much anticipated upgrade to Microsofts flagship operating system is one that will allow users to plug their digital cable directly into their PC to watch and record high-definition cable content.

Gates, Microsofts co-founder and chief software architect, delivered his keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in front of a packed audience eager to sneak a peek at Vista.

As broadband and high-definition content becomes ever more ubiquitous, Gates said the unifying factor will be software.

The software is where the magic is. If you are going to have all this power be simple enough, appealing enough and cool enough, its going to be because the software is right he said