Microsoft intends to crank out this month its first internal builds of Neptune, the code name for the first consumer version of Windows built on the NT kernel.

Neptune is slated as the follow-on to Millennium, the code name for the final version of Windows based on the Windows 9x kernel.

Neptune will be Microsoft's first operating system to make use of the "Win tone" service that CEO Bill Gates outlined last fall. Much like Sun Microsystems' "web tone" concept - in which web connections are as ubiquitous and reliable as dial tone on a phone - Win tone is aimed at making PCs self-healing and self-updating.

The full story is posted at www.zdnn.com .