Mr. Ray Ozzie, who is now chief software architect for Microsoft, has been working for the past year on a crucial component of Microsoft's strategy for increasing the use of the Internet to distribute software. While Microsoft dominated an era in which software was sold licensed in a box, it is moving many of its business customers to a subscription service. Mr. Ozzies work on Microsoft Live brand is a set of services that delivers software to companies and Internet searches to consumers. Mr. Ozzie and other leaders in Microsoft say those services are only the beginning of the Internet-based services market through which software and storage will be moved onto the Internet. Some such services are being developed by Google and other Internet companies. Company executives, for instance, say services might allow computer users to gain access to their digital files, including photos, documents, and videos, on the Internet from any PC or from other devices, including mobile phones. Currently most users would have no access to such PC-stored files through the Internet. Until 2008, Mr. Ozzie will be Mr. Bill Gates shadow each day, since Mr. Gates announced on Thursday that he plans to end full-time work in 2008 at Microsoft, a company founded by Mr. Gates. Communication and collaboration will be at the core of Mr. Ozzies role as he works with Mr. Gates to decide which of Mr. Gates approaches he will emulate and those from which he will turn away.