Redmond Expands Icon-Use Rules

Baldwin Louie — Thu, 09 Aug 2001 15:00:00 -0700

NEW YORK, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp., hoping to
counter AOL Time Warner Inc.<AOL.N>, disclosed broader
requirements on personal-computer makers for displaying the
company's software and services along with the forthcoming
Windows XP operating system, the Wall Street Journal reported in
its online edition on Thursday.

In cases where PC manufacturers plan to provide Windows XP
with icons on the desktop, Microsoft will take three of them, a
company spokesman said, according to the report. The icons will
point to Microsoft's MSN online service, its Windows Media
software and its Internet Explorer Web software, the spokesman
said Wednesday, according to the newspaper.

The report said that some Microsoft officials had previously
suggested that it would require only one icon, for its MSN
service, on the desktops of computer makers that display the
icon of AOL's rival America Online service.

Microsoft had originally planned to ship Windows XP with a
desktop screen free of icons, and the company still encourages
PC makers to provide it that way, the report said. But an
appeals court ruling led the company to relax some of its
restrictions on features of the desktop, and AOL began offering
to pay computer makers for a prominent position on Windows XP,
according to the report.

Windows XP is scheduled to launch on October 25.

James Allchin, head of Microsoft's Windows business, in an
interview this week with ZDNet's eWeek service, said that the
company had actually disclosed the requirements for multiple
icons to PC makers some time ago, the newspaper said. "In
hindsight, I feel bad that we didn't make this public," he told
the publication. "But it wasn't a change, it was something we
told the [computer makers]."

The report said an AOL spokesman could not be reached for
comment. AOL has previously criticised Microsoft for simply
dictating placement of its services to PC makers, where AOL has
to pay them, the report noted.

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Redmond Expands Icon-Use Rules