Microsoft is ready to open a new, easy-to-use Window

REDMOND, Wash. -- Larson-Green is head of "Windows Experience" and in charge of a wide swath of the system, from the way buttons and menus work to getting the software out in January as scheduled. Her plan: Build an operating system that doesn't require people to take computer classes or master thick manuals.

"We want to reduce the amount of thinking about the software … so that they can concentrate all their thinking on the task they're trying to get done," she said.

Microsoft relies on Windows for half its profit. But Vista's poor reception when it launched in 2007 dinged the software maker's reputation at a critical time. Vista was designed for powerful, pricier PCs just as nimble rivals such as Google were releasing Web-based programs that could run on inexpensive computers.

What's more, Vista's initial incompatibility with many existing programs and devices, and its pestering security warnings, exposed Microsoft to ridicule in Apple commercials that helped Macintosh computers gain market share. Businesses didn't give up Windows, but many delayed upgrading to Vista.

If you're using Office 2007, you're already familiar with Larson-Green's work. She was the one who banished the familiar system of menus on Word, Excel and other programs in favor of a new "ribbon" that shows different options at different times, depending on what a user is working on. It seemed risky, but it was grounded in mountains of data showing how people used the software.

"Some people are great at having ideas, and (have) no discipline. Some people are great at discipline, not much at ideas," says Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. "She's got both."

Larson-Green, 47, a 16-year Microsoft veteran, grew up in tiny Maple Falls, Wash., about 100 miles north of Microsoft headquarters. She waited tables to put herself through Western Washington University, then took a job in 1987 answering customer support calls at Aldus, a pioneering software company in Seattle.