Microsoft touts PCs, Longhorn, CE - Company shows off technologies that boost user experience.

Microsoft showed off a future model for PCs, the successor to Windows XP, and an upcoming iteration of Windows CE, all of which the company hopes will improve how users interact with computers.

One analyst sees the move as a way to boost sales.

Microsoft is "trying to spur the hardware vendors [who] will create innovations and, in turn, spur PC sales," said Matt Rosoff, analyst at Directions on Microsoft, an independent analyst firm inKirkland, Wash. "They realize IT spending is in a slump and it's unlikely to pick up any time soon."

At the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) last week in New Orleans, Microsoft officials, including …