Computer security experts said a virus designed to steal financial data and passwords from Web users rippled across the Internet on Friday, exploiting a vulnerability in servers using Microsoft`s IIS software.
Known as the "Scob" outbreak, the attack has been termed more dangerous than the recent "Sasser" and "Blaster" infections.
"We will guarantee that the average time to fix will continue to come down," said Gates, the software giant`s chairman, who was in Australia for a charity launch.
"The thing we have to do is not only get these patches done very quickly...we also have to convince people to turn on auto-update."
The Microsoft Windows auto update feature, which is not turned on by default, allows security and other software to be updated and installed automatically.
Gates also said Microsoft would revamp its Internet search site in July with a new search engine, using its dominant industry position to take market share from Google.
"In July the format of the site will change and so the quality of what you get and the way it will look is dramatically improved," Gates told reporters.
"It will be later this year that we actually roll-out what is entirely our own back-end driving the search."
Google has raised the stakes in the war for Internet market share with its Gmail service, which gives 1GB of free e-mail storage, far more than Yahoo.
Microsoft said last week it would give paying customers of its Hotmail e-mail service 2GB of storage and boost the size limits on free accounts, matching similar moves this month by Yahoo.
Microsoft also said that it will roll-out free e-mail and anti-virus protection to all 170 million users of its consumer Web services worldwide. The protection will both scan and clean incoming and outgoing e-mail for viruses and worms before they can enter a customer`s inbox.
A recent US survey, commissioned by Standard & Poor`s, showed 48% of Web search engine users preferred the soon-to-be public Google over its rivals, with 14% saying they preferred Microsoft`s MSN, compared with 20% for Yahoo.
($1=A$1.43)
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