Redmond, Washington, July 17: Microsoft is unveiling a new version of its MSN Internet service - a multimillion dollar redesign that it hopes will lure customers away from America Online. MSN 8, which will launch this fall, includes new features designed to simplify and personalize how people use the Internet. For example, the new version allows users to easily send pictures in e-mail, pay bills electronically and, for parents, restrict what their children see on the Web and who they e-mail.

It also reflects a new push by MSN - which has never made a profit in its six years of operation - to bring in more revenue, said Lisa Gurry, MSN product manager.

Microsoft has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on developing MSN 8, but the new features are for its paying Internet subscribers rather than for those who visit MSN's free news, finance and entertainment websites. Bureau Report