NEW YORK–The new Microsoft Windows Vista operating system, aswell as the 2007 release of Microsoft Office, will offer insurers ahigher level of data security and user account control, helpingthem comply with federal and state regulations, a Microsoftexecutive said.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., announced the businessavailability of Vista and the Office 2007 release at a major pressevent held here Tuesday.

According to Bill Hartnett, general manager of the InsuranceSolutions Group at Microsoft, the new platform and software includefeatures designed to foil data breaches that could mean regulatorytroubles for insurers, brokers and others who handle sensitiveinformation.

“Up to now, operating systems were assumed to be operating in abenign world,” said Mr. Hartnett. “This is the first operatingsystem built with the assumption that you are going into a hostileworld, where there are dangers from organized crime andterrorists.”

He noted that many data breaches occur when laptop computers orPDAs (personal data assistants) are lost or stolen. The newreleases, however, allow portable users to equip their entire harddrives with a “strong level of encryption,” he explained.

In addition, the new products allow information on anInternet-ready phone to be “remotely wiped” if the device is lostor stolen.

Mr. Hartnett conceded that Vista users may have to use morekeystrokes to access sensitive information, “but it is also moresecure.” Users can turn off many of the security features, althoughMicrosoft doesn't recommend it.

He pointed out that no new hardware is needed to run WindowsVista, although a memory upgrade may be necessary and a newgraphics card may be needed to take advantage of the operatingsystem's three dimension capabilities.

Vista and the 2007 release of Microsoft Office will allow usersto find information more easily by scrolling through 3-D pages,said Mr. Hartnett. Simply “hovering” over an on-screen applicationimmediately yields a thumbnail representation of what is there, heexplained.

“The most powerful feature is the search technology within theenterprise on the desktop,” he said. “[Users] keep gathering moreinformation on their computers, so it becomes more difficult toremember where the information is stored.”

The new application allows users to create a search folderaround a single name, then get “everything”–e-mail, documents,etc.–related to that name.” The best part of that, he noted, isthat “every time I open it up again, it automatically refreshes andupdates.”

The graphical user interface on Microsoft Office has alsochanged to make accessing information easier, said Mr. Hartnett.The software is “sensitive to what you're doing” and can pull up“Ribbons” menus that relate to common tasks such as editing ormail-merge, he explained.

For those who are already skilled in using the older keyboardshortcuts, however, that capability remains.

Excel Services is another major enhancement to the MicrosoftOffice suite, said Mr. Hartnett. This application, built forfinancial services, enables users to run Excel spreadsheets on acompany's server as a set of Web services.

The spreadsheets are rendered in a browser, but security ismaintained by the ability of administrators to limit views andaccess to the data. In addition, any underlying formulas in thespreadsheets are not exposed, which is “a huge benefit from thecompliance and security standpoint,” he added.

Mr. Hartnett conceded that a number of the new features of Vistaand the 2007 Office release were already present in Windows XP andprevious Office versions, “but people just didn't know how toaccess them or how to use them.” The new releases, he said, willmake those features more accessible and easier to use.