Microsoft May Delay Products to Fix Security

Microsoft Corp. may delay some products, including its next version of Windows for server computers, to improve security, Vice President Cliff Reeves said Monday.

About 7,000 engineers in the Windows operating system, word-processing and e-mail product groups are in security training, Reeves said.

That, and the need to fix any security flaws that are found, may result in delays.

Chairman Bill Gates last week sent an e-mail to employees saying Microsoft must make security a higher priority than new features.

Microsoft is trying to take customers from rivals such as Sun Microsystems Inc. with its Windows server software and must improve security to do that.

Delays can hurt sales of the server products the company is relying on to fuel growth.

“Undoubtedly this will cause delays in products, but we would hardly be credible if we didn’t do this,” Reeves said.

“Once you decide to do this, it takes priority over everything else,” he said.

Security improvements at Microsoft are designed to make sure programs don’t go on sale with flaws that can let a hacker take over computers and gain access to files.

In the last year, thousands of servers running Microsoft software were infected with the Code Red worm, and the new Windows XP program for personal computers was susceptible to hackers.

Microsoft hasn’t disclosed a release date for the next version of the Windows server software for running Web sites and corporate networks.

Windows .Net Server will go on sale in the middle of the year, the company said.

Reeves, a vice president in the Windows .Net group, said the software probably will be available by the end of September.

Training for Microsoft engineers is expected to be complete by the end of the month, Reeves said.