The centerpiece of the software is a new unified search application, Windows Live Search. Expected to be released in test form this summer, Windows Live Search is installed on a user's PC to allow simultaneous and quick searches of the PC, a corporate intranet as well as the whole Internet.

"Microsoft is working on permeating search throughout its strategy," said David Mitchell Smith, an analyst at Gartner Inc.

Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates is expected to unveil these and other parts of Microsoft's search strategy in a morning keynote at the company's 10th annual CEO Summit in Redmond, Wash.

According to Microsoft, workers today simultaneously suffer from information overload and "underload," which Jon Beighle, a general manager in Microsoft's online services group, called the inability to find desired information quickly. For instance, users who want to find information in databases, their Outlook e-mail or in specialized business applications from companies such as Siebel or SAP would have to open each one up and search them individually.

Windows Live Search will leverage the upcoming version of Microsoft's collaboration and workflow manager, Office SharePoint Server 2007, to allow users to search those business applications, e-mail servers, hard drives and elsewhere on their network.