Microsoft to tweak Windows to address complaints

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Microsoft Corp. has agreed to tweak its Windows XP operating system in response to recent feedback from the Justice Department over its antitrust settlement with the federal government.

Microsoft will give more prominent display to a button in Windows that allows computer users to remove the company's Internet Explorer browser, company spokesman Jim Desler said.

The company believes the button's original placement complied with the settlement, Desler said. But he said the company agreed to change its position in the Windows "start menu" after talking with the Justice Department

"As part of our effort to cooperate fully and work collaboratively with the Justice Department we agreed to make this change," Desler said.

The Justice Department is overseeing Microsoft's compliance with the settlement. Placement of the button in a hard-to-reach spot in Windows was one of several complaints Microsoft's rivals made to the department last year.

News source: InfoWorld - Microsoft to tweak Windows to address complaints

The settlement, endorsed in November by U.S. District Judge ColleenKollar-Kotelly in November, resolved the federal government's charges that Microsoft abused its monopoly in personal computer operating systems.

Terms of the settlement were designed to give computer makers greater freedom to feature rival browsers such as AOL Time Warner Inc.'s Netscape Navigator, as well as other non-Microsoft software, by allowing them to hide some Microsoft icons on the Windows desktop.

Microsoft is prohibited from retaliating under the settlement against computer makers who choose to feature non-Microsoft products. Nor could it enter into agreements that require the exclusive support of some Microsoft software.

Mike Pettit, a spokesman for Procomp, an anti-Microsoft computer industry trade group, said the latest modification was minor. He called it "a complete waste of time and effort and has nothing to do with restoring competition."

#1 Andrew179 on 04 Apr 2003 - 01:40

I agree with Mike Pettit on this one..I think anyone computer-savvy enough to want to use another browser can figure out how to "remove" Internet Explorer. eg remove the icons

(2 replies) #2 warr on 04 Apr 2003 - 02:25

so now you see? MS can do this kind of things easily. but they don't do it if you don't give them pressure. now their action makes them admit they use monopolistic tricks!

well, i don't use IE any more. can't bear its slow speed.

#2.1 JaggedFlame on 05 Apr 2003 - 04:32

Yeah, not giving the user a big huge button that lets them do something they can do already is a "monopolistic trick".

#2.2 gameguy34 on 05 Apr 2003 - 05:57

and they arent exactly removing ie, just removing icons for it. the user can still run iexplore.exe if he/she wants

(2 replies) #3 SHoTTa35 on 04 Apr 2003 - 02:29

would ya'll leave MS alone!!!

#3.1 SHoTTa35 on 04 Apr 2003 - 02:30

w000t.... this is post 100000!!! HOLLA!!!!

#3.2 rob.derosa on 04 Apr 2003 - 06:54

100000 WHAT?

#4 darkmatter on 04 Apr 2003 - 02:34

IE slow, wtf? it is not slow for me

#5 FuhrerDarqueSyde on 04 Apr 2003 - 02:51

not slow for me either, i second the motion to quit pestering msft. find someone else to bother(like Sun)

#6 Ely on 04 Apr 2003 - 03:01

IE slow? what the heck are you talking about? you gotto be joking, there's no faster browser these days, unless you are using a 200MHz processor? in which case I still see it hard that any other browser will run faster than IE.

#7 krzystealth on 04 Apr 2003 - 03:21

Gotta love lynx ...so its text based??

#8 georgi55 on 04 Apr 2003 - 04:25

That is just plain STUPID. Why the F would you put Remove of IE at Start on Widnows? And, if someone makes compatible browser I am willing to pay even $100 for it.

(4 replies) #9 jb10fan on 04 Apr 2003 - 05:03

WTF are you, french? MS is a victim of the fucking governmental policies that other companies that cant make software half as good use against the big guys. And IE is the fastest browser I have used. Later idiot..

#9.1 Furet on 04 Apr 2003 - 11:26

[QUOTE]WTF are you, french?[/QUOTE] What about [QUOTE]# Racism, Threatening, Victimization or otherwise Hateful comments[/QUOTE] Sentence being "ironic", put another think than a nationality...For me I feel like you were a nazi speaking of a jewish. Not very well, you see?

#9.2 pctuk on 04 Apr 2003 - 19:08

[neoquote=#9.0 by jb10fan]WTF are you, french? MS is a victim of the fucking governmental policies that other companies that cant make software half as good use against the big guys. And IE is the fastest browser I have used. Later idiot..[/neoquote] Yes, I too find this distasteful.

#9.3 gameguy34 on 05 Apr 2003 - 05:59

ok guys, stop it. but jb10fan did make a good point

#9.4 ImOnTheGoodFoot on 07 Apr 2003 - 17:48

[neoquote=#9.2 by pctuk]Yes, I too find this distasteful.[/neoquote] ha, and i find it hilarious.

(1 reply) #10 Darkwolven on 04 Apr 2003 - 05:19

I can just hear the tech calls now... "Uhh...I can't go to the web." "Sir, what happens when you type a web address in your browser?" "In my what?" "Sir, what happens when you click a link?" "It says that there is no default browser configured." "You don't have a web browser on your computer??!" "Well there was this button that said to remove IE, whatever that was..." MS may be the big bad, but if you ask me, this whole removing IE is going to help HOW??! There are going to be a lot of dumb asses that don't know jack that are going to be breaking their machines web browsing. Just you wait and see, unless MS is smart enough to prevent IE from being removed without an other alternative browser installed. It makes perfect sense to have IE as part of Windows. So what if it points to MSN on default. What's the big deal?

#10.1 hotrod on 04 Apr 2003 - 06:12

i agree.... but has anyone actually removed IE from XP??? all it does is remove the icons and THAT'S IT!! go remove it and then click Start, Run, and type IEXPLORE..... it's still there.. it cant be removed totally, it's a critical limb of the OS.... all they might do is make it a bit easier for someone to find the 'add-remove' buttone for IE compared to where it is now.... as long as there are MS OS's, there will always be IE and you probably will never be able to remove it completely. haven't these morons learned by now that MS will continue to do as little as possible to make the DOJ happy? and whoever thinks they have found a web browser that is faster than IE....... please show me one.....

#11 alanzeino2002 on 04 Apr 2003 - 05:32

lol ill be using this feature alot, to show all da bugs in window xp.

(1 reply) #12 DrunkenMaster on 04 Apr 2003 - 05:39

Regardless, the deal they agreed to stated that they have to remove IE from the OS. On the service pack, they only give an option to get rid of the icons on the desktop and remove ie as a default browser which does not accord with the DOJ. Nor does the JAVA thing ( although I hate JAVA and would rather see it disappear ). Altough I find it ironic that the DOJ finds MS abusing its power behaving like a monopoly when their competition is: [b]AOL Time Warner Inc.'s [/b] Netscape Navigator. MS is prob. depending on IE for .NET and don't want it touched. The DOJ should go after AOLTW for using its monopoly to try and get people using Netscape. jb10fan WTF are you, french? - I don't know if he's French and don't care. jb10fan you're an idiot.

#12.1 macrosslover on 04 Apr 2003 - 06:23

[neoquote=#12.0 by DrunkenMaster]Regardless, the deal they agreed to stated that they have to remove IE from the OS. On the service pack, they only give an option to get rid of the icons on the desktop and remove ie as a default browser which does not accord with the DOJ. Nor does the JAVA thing ( although I hate JAVA and would rather see it disappear ). Altough I find it ironic that the DOJ finds MS abusing its power behaving like a monopoly when their competition is: [b]AOL Time Warner Inc.'s [/b] Netscape Navigator. MS is prob. depending on IE for .NET and don't want it touched. The DOJ should go after AOLTW for using its monopoly to try and get people using Netscape. jb10fan WTF are you, french? - I don't know if he's French and don't care. jb10fan you're an idiot. [/neoquote] it didn't say they had to remove IE from the OS. they only had to remove access to IE and allow OEMs to install other browswers as the primary browswers. so far Microsoft has done their part, but i haven't seen any OEMs installing mozilla or netcrap as the default browswer.

(1 reply) #13 kyro on 04 Apr 2003 - 06:48

cool down all u peeps... use opera and let there be world peace...

#13.1 psw on 04 Apr 2003 - 15:19

opera looks like a$$

[IMG]http://www.opera.com/graphics/docs/screenshots/opera-7-win.png[/IMG]

#14 kyro on 04 Apr 2003 - 06:49

link to Opera :- [URL=http://www.opera.com]Opera.com[/URL]

(2 replies) #15 razar on 04 Apr 2003 - 10:36

Somebody needs to take Microsofts third leg out of your mouths.

:disappoin This is what should be done as far as I.E. intergration in Windows. Microsoft should remove all browsing features buttons, logos, every thing but the basic html engine needed for other programs to run. Block the ablility to get to the internet from the the filebrowser. Then put all these removed features into an extention download on widowsupdate for those who want them and Market it as Windows Internet Explorer. or Windows explorer Problem solved. See how easy they could have gotten away with this...

Last edited by 18003 on 04 Apr 2003 - 10:48

#15.1 georgi55 on 04 Apr 2003 - 22:23

Why the f**k would you do that when over 90% of people use IE.

#15.2 ImOnTheGoodFoot on 07 Apr 2003 - 17:49

[neoquote=#15.1 by georgi55]Why the f**k would you do that when over 90% of people use IE.[/neoquote] 96% to be precise...

#16 Octol on 04 Apr 2003 - 10:55

I certainly understand that there are many people out there that could be given an inferior browser with a new computer and they wouldn't even know it. What I can't understand is why any computer manufacturer would [I]want[/I] to do that. IE is the fastest browser, and their customers would be best served by installing it as the default. If they're worried about which portal customers are directed to when they opens their browsers, they need only make home.netscape.com (or any other page) the default home page and the average Joe won't have a clue as to how to change it. The customer gets the fastest browser, and the manufacturers get to shove their commercial vomit down his throat.

Last edited by 22045 on 04 Apr 2003 - 11:59

#17 Furet on 04 Apr 2003 - 11:27

MOZILLA RULEZZZZ!!!!!

#18 paulhaskew on 04 Apr 2003 - 19:10

all i can say is that, when you click that remove IE button, it only removes the link from the start menu and desktop, thats it... kinda funny... also does the same thing with MSN program, and Windows Messenger, doesn't actually uninstall the application...

(2 replies) #19 tuxracer on 04 Apr 2003 - 23:16

None of their middleware is able to be removed. With Internet Explorer they purposesly made parts of the UI depend on it so that they could argue that Windows depended on it (e.g. such as using it for the help file reader, requiring it for Windows Update, using it for various parts of explorer, etc...). The only thing that happens is that Internet Explorer is simply hidden, and then you are nagged about having to use it while trying to use various aspects of the OS. The other programs, such as Windows Messenger, and Windows Media Player, are also simply hidden, even though they can be removed from the OS completely at this point.

#19.1 JaggedFlame on 05 Apr 2003 - 04:34

[QUOTE]With Internet Explorer they purposesly made parts of the UI depend on it so that they could argue that Windows depended on it (e.g. such as using it for the help file reader, requiring it for Windows Update, using it for various parts of explorer, etc...). [/QUOTE] I'd like to see some evidence for that. As far as I know, they did that because it's innovative and allows them to incorporate more unified features. Nothing wrong with that.

#19.2 gameguy34 on 05 Apr 2003 - 06:05

another thing i would like to point out: its microsoft's product. they can put whatever they want in it. they can do whatever they want with it. its THEIRS, get it through your head. if you don't like what they do with it, use something else. period.

#20 99 to Life on 06 Apr 2003 - 19:24

I'm still gonna use MSN. So does this matter at all? No!

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