Windows Security On A Chip

Microsoft Reveals More Details Of Operation System's Next Version

(CBS/AP)  "People will still be able to upgrade their machines with the new operating system but to take advantage of all the new security features, they may have to buy a new PC," he said.

Neil Charney, director of product management in Microsoft's Windows group, said the feature is most likely to be used by business computers, especially in laptops that store sensitive data that could come back to haunt companies after a theft.

A number of companies, including Microsoft, are working together to beef up security using a combination of hardware and software. NGSCB is just one iteration, though it's likely to have the most impact given Microsoft's dominance.

Some PC vendors, including IBM Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co., have been offering PCs with security chips for years. On Monday, HP announced it will support Longhorn's implementation on some of its business computers and workstations.

Gates also was expected to unveil other security enhancements in Longhorn, including user accounts that don't always have the highest privileges but are flexible enough to allow software installation. Other operating systems such as Linux and Mac OS X support such accounts by prompting for an administrator's password when needed.

Longhorn also will include a number of visual improvements such as icons that show content from the documents they represent. The software also is expected to introduce more intuitive ways of organizing files as well as faster searching.

Charney said the features will work even without a new file system that was originally scheduled to ship with Longhorn. The updated file system, called WinFS, is now slated to be available in a preview release when the final version of Longhorn is shipped in late 2006.