"They sound good and look great, but my impression is that they are not technologically competitive enough to usurp the third-party software we use now," he said.

Ebert said he is most impressed by Microsoft's public push to convince users that it is serious about securing its products. "Eighty percent of security is dealing with the psychology of people and processes," he said. "The technical part is almost easy by comparison."

Andrew Cushman, Microsoft's director for security engineering, said a spate of viruses, such as Code Red and Slammer, that targeted and wreaked havoc on Microsoft software about four years ago was a wake-up call for the company.

"It's like going to the doctor and having him tell you, 'You're 100 pounds overweight. You've got diabetes. If you don't do something soon, you're going to die,' " Cushman said. "We didn't treat it like a New Year's resolution and stop going to the gym by February. We like going to the gym now. And we all want to ship a more secure product."

Vista is the first Microsoft product to follow Microsoft's Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) regimen from the start of its development, noted Cushman. He said SDL includes several steps, including penetration testing by a team of in-house Microsoft hackers and checking all old and third-party code in the operating system.