Next Windows set for 2006

SEATTLE — Microsoft Corp. will drop a much-touted new technology for organizing and storing data when it releases the next version of its Windows operating system as expected in 2006.

Tom Button, corporate vice president for Windows product management, said the company hopes to release the new Windows version, code-named Longhorn, in the second half of 2006, about five years after the release of the current version, Windows XP.

With Longhorn, Button said Microsoft plans to improve the way people find things like e-mails, photos and documents. But in formally announcing the release date, the company said it would not be ready to include an even more advanced system for sorting, storing and finding data. Instead, it will begin testing that system about the same time it releases Longhorn and make it available at an unspecified time later.

The ability to find and organize data on a personal computer is becoming increasingly important as people are able to amass more digital information. Right now, finding pictures, e-mails and a Microsoft Word document, all related to the same topic — say, a vacation in Hawaii — is time-consuming and cumbersome. These new technologies aim to make it quicker and easier.

Michael Cherry, an analyst with independent researchers Directions on Microsoft, said the company probably had little choice but to reduce Longhorn’s capabilities if it wanted to deliver the system on time.