Microsoft counts on Windows client.(plans XML-based software and services for Windows 2000)(Company Business and Marketing)

AS THE INTERNET increasingly pushes the world toward a server-centric computing model, Microsoft is betting on the Extensible Markup Language (XML) as a crucial standard for building the enterprise architectures to support electronic commerce.

Microsoft last week outlined an infrastructure of programmable applications and Web services based on its Windows 2000 platform, all of which would be based on a slew of XML-enabled products from the Redmond, Wash.-based company.

Microsoft's strategy "opens up whole new areas of possibility for customization and personalization," said Warren Wilson, an analyst at Summit Strategies, in Bellevue, Wash. "It's easy to …