Gates pledges to boost Windows

Microsoft will incorporate Internet browser features such as 'back' buttons and bookmarking into future versions of Windows as part of its revamped user interface, Bill Gates said this week.

In his new role of chief software architect, Gates will spend the next three years rebuilding the company's software to incorporate Web functionality, making extensive use of extensible mark-up language (XML) and working on its reliability.

"The evolutionary approach won't get us where we really want to be. And so it's the same type of bet that was made when we bet the company on the graphical user interface, when we bet the company on the Windows NT code base," he said.

Gates, speaking at the World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland, also said his company will stick to software rather than follow the lead of AOL in buying a media giant. He did, however, praise the US company's purchase of media conglomerate Time Warner.

"It would be fun to own a movie studio, but I don't have any expertise, so we're going to stay away from that," said Gates. "Instead, I think there's room for a company whose main goal is to create software."

Gates rejected the idea of splitting up Microsoft, following a filing made last week by the US Justice Department accusing the company of breaking antitrust laws and ignoring the judge's preliminary findings. The filing invited the company to "consider the appropriate remedy" such as breakup.

World economic and political leaders debated ecommerce at the forum, a key international summit for heads of state and business.