New Windows Puts Security in Focus

Microsoft Corp.’s ambitious plan to keep data safe on personal computers will make a scaled-down debut in the next release of Windows, though the operating system’s most anticipated improvements in graphics appear to mirror what’s now available from rival Apple Computer Inc.

The long-delayed Windows upgrade, now expected in December 2006, has been touted as the most significant update to the ubiquitous operating system since Windows 95 launched in 1995. In a speech Monday, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates showed off several features.

Gates demonstrated Longhorn’s new graphics, which include better ways to visualize data, including seeing through windows that are stacked atop each other, more natural file organization and faster searching. He also promised better performance and reliability.

And though he spent only a few minutes on security in his speech, Gates said it was the most important improvement and had received the most attention by developers.

“If you had to take one area where we put the most investment in, the security area would be the head of that list by a significant amount,” he told the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Seattle.

Longhorn is the first release of Windows to implement Microsoft’s vision of boosting security by placing cryptographic keys in special silicon chips that would be built into PCs.

Currently, such encryption locks are stored as data on a hard drive. It is, however, much more difficult to crack a chip.

The security chip in computers running Longhorn would thus render sensitive files inaccessible if someone tried to boot the machine from a portable hard drive or floppy disk.

Many of the features that Gates demonstrated Monday -- including shadowed, translucent windows as well as fancy, stutter-free animations -- have been a part of the Mac OS since it was released in March 2001.

And some of Longhorn’s organizational tools, such as faster searching and virtual folders that populate with documents based on the information they contain, are expected to be part of the version of Mac OS X that goes on sale Friday.

Also Monday, the company named Chris Liddell its chief financial officer, effective May 9 to replace John Connors, who retired in January to join a venture capital fund. Liddell, 47, is CFO of International Paper Co.

Microsoft shares rose a penny to $24.99 on Nasdaq.