Even as it enhances its Web-based content-delivery channels, the heart of Microsoft's consumer electronics strategy remains the Windows-based PC and its related form factors, and hardware partners are expected to display new PCs and devices during Sunday's keynote. Among them will be the IdeaPad from Lenovo, an ultra-light 11-inch notebook. Gateway and Dell also will be on hand to show off new computers based on Windows Vista, for which Microsoft has said it has surpassed the 100-million license mark for both business and consumer versions.

Another hardware partnership highlighted during the keynote is one with Samsung, which plans to build Microsoft's Windows Media Center extender into televisions. The extender enables a wireless connection between Windows and TVs so people can view high-definition content from a Windows device on a TV screen.

Microsoft Sunday also plans to highlight its Milan surface computer, a tabletop computer it revealed in May that uses wireless autosync and touchscreen capabilities. Microsoft is pitching the new form factor to industries such as hospitality, and will demonstrate some early-adopter scenarios on stage during Gates' keynote, Pilla said.

Microsoft also plans to reveal some future-looking prototypes that use voice, touch and vision interface features, which Gates has long promoted as part of his concept of how people can interact with technology. One of those will be a so-called mobile navigator device, which he is expected to demo at the end of his keynote.

One new consumer electronics product Gates and Bach likely won't mention Sunday is Zune, Microsoft's digital media player that competes with the iPod, a device that is also part of the company's broader entertainment plan. According to IDC's Levitas, this is not surprising, considering how unsuccessful the product has been for the company.

"Zune is such a dog that they don't want to talk about it that much," she said.