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images/news/vista.jpgMicrosoft has agreed to make changes to its Windows Vista operating system in response to a complaint by Google that a feature of Vista is anticompetitive, lawyers involved in the case said on Tuesday.
The settlement, reached in recent days by state prosecutors, the Justice Department and Microsoft, averted the prospect of litigation over a complaint by Google that Vista had been designed to frustrate computer users who want to use software other than Microsoft’s to search through files on their hard drives.
The changes to Vista would allow consumers to decide which desktop search program they want to use, and selection of the software from Google or some other company would no longer slow down the computer as it does now. It would also give computer makers broader discretion about which company’s desktop search program to install as the default. Microsoft said it would make some of the changes to the operating system in a previously scheduled update to Vista later this year called Service Pack 1 that users will be able to download over the Internet.
The settlement, reached in recent days by state prosecutors, the Justice Department and Microsoft, averted the prospect of litigation over a complaint by Google that Vista had been designed to frustrate computer users who want to use software other than Microsoft’s to search through files on their hard drives.
The changes to Vista would allow consumers to decide which desktop search program they want to use, and selection of the software from Google or some other company would no longer slow down the computer as it does now. It would also give computer makers broader discretion about which company’s desktop search program to install as the default. Microsoft said it would make some of the changes to the operating system in a previously scheduled update to Vista later this year called Service Pack 1 that users will be able to download over the Internet.
