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Follow UsElinor Mills Abreu
SAN FRANCISCO: The first product changes dictated by a proposed antitrust
settlement with Microsoft Corp. will appear next week in a software patch for
Windows XP, the company said on Friday.
Microsoft and the US Department of Justice agreed to a settlement in October
designed to address complaints that the software giant was using its market
dominance to bully computer manufacturers and others to favor its products.
The settlement, which is being challenged as inadequate by nine states, would
give computer makers more flexibility to feature rival software on their
machines. The settlement is not binding until signed by the judge, although
Microsoft agreed to comply with certain conditions before then, Jim Cullinan,
lead product manager, told Reuters.
The Windows XP Service Pack 1 will be released to more than 10,000 beta testers
by the end of May and then made available to the public around the end of
August, he said. The software allows computer manufacturers and users a variety
of options in making default settings for certain popular programs including Web
browser, e-mail, instant messenger and media player for audio and video.
More user options
A new button on the Windows start menu, titled "set program access and
defaults," allows users to choose between four default options: computer
manufacturer choice; Microsoft only software; non-Microsoft software; and
customized settings, which is the default choice.
Users can choose to set defaults to one program but also display alternative
programs, or they can hide other programs so that the icons are not on the
desktop or in other areas, eliminating easy access to the programs. Previously,
computer makers could set defaults to programs other than Microsoft's but could
not hide Microsoft programs, except for the browser, like they can now.
Microsoft allowed computer makers to hide access to Microsoft's Internet
Explorer browser after an appeals court in June agreed with a lower court that
Microsoft had illegally maintained its monopoly in personal computer operating
systems.
Microsoft to share protocols
In the coming months, Microsoft plans to share code with competitors that
will enable them to write programs that interact with XP in the same way
Microsoft programs do, Cullinan said.
Microsoft will release application programming interfaces, code that reveals
how a software program talks to the operating system, he said. The company also
will license protocols used in communications between desktop Windows PCs and
servers, he added.
The company did not decide to release the service pack because of the
settlement, but rather because Windows NT code, formerly used in products aimed
at the corporate market, is now in XP and being used by consumers, Cullinan
said.
Service packs are meant to fix critical compatibility, reliability and
security issues in a product until an updated version of it can be released.
"We've never issued a service pack for a general consumer" product, he
said.
Anti-trust, security training
The service pack will reflect specialized employee training in anti-trust
law as well as in secure product design and development, Cullinan said. The
company announced a push earlier this year to make security a priority in all
its products.
"You will see some fixes based on that work," he said, of the security
training. "It's one step. There's still a long way to go." The service
pack will roll up about a dozen or so critical security problems that have
already been patched in XP and accompanying programs like Windows Messenger
instant messaging, he said.
The software also changes the Passport settings so that they don't pop up
soliciting registration until a user accesses a service that requires Passport,
such as Hotmail, Microsoft Network or Windows Messenger.
Passport allows users to enter their personal information once and have it
accessible by multiple Web sites and services, rather than the user having to
enter that data for each new service they sign up for.
The settlement was reached after the appeals court decision ruled that
Microsoft was a monopoly but rejected a proposal to split the company in two.
California, Massachusetts and seven other states are pressing for more severe
sanctions against Microsoft, such as forcing the company to sell a cheaper,
stripped-down version of Windows and giving rivals easy access to detailed
Windows code.
About 32 million copies of Windows XP have been sold since its release in
October, according to Cullinan.