Microsoft said Friday it plans to broadly release the long-awaited update to its flagship Windows operating system, dubbed "Longhorn," in 2006. The world's largest software company said the update will feature "major" productivity improvements and "significant" improvements in security and reliability.

"Getting 'Longhorn' to customers in 2006 will provide important advances in performance, security and reliability, and will help accelerate the creation of exciting new applications by developers across the industry," said Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect of Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft.

The server version of Longhorn is expected in 2007.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2004