Microsoft said Monday it has taken steps to comply with the terms of an agreement it made with US regulators to curb the company's past anti-trust behavior.
The world's biggest computer software company said it was moving ahead to complete contracts that apply uniformly to the top 20 computer manufacturers and that it was issuing updates to some of its Windows titles to allow users to remove unwanted Microsoft features.
The decree has not yet been made binding by a US court hearing the anti-trust case as nine other US states have declined to opt into the decree and continue to pursue the company over anti-trust violations.
The company also said it was going to uncloak some internal source codes, known as Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that would allow software from rival companies to work with Windows, which in various forms runs 95 percent of the world's desktop computers.
Microsoft said it was going to be "erring on the side of reasonableness" in making changes to its software and its business practices.
The company said it would disclose nearly 400 APIs by Aug. 28 in order to comply with a proposed antitrust settlement signed last year with the US Justice Department.
Micrsoft also said that since Aug. 1, it has introduced changes to Window licensing contracts with PC makers which make terms and conditions uniform rather than negotiating on each individual deal. Computer makers said Microsoft discriminated against some companies by creating harsher contract terms.
The US-based company agreed last year between Microsoft and the US Justice Department to settle the four year-old antitrust dispute, which found the software company maintained a monopoly on its computer operating system.
Only half of the 18 states that were suing the company alongside the Justice Department signed that deal, which cannot become law until US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly signs it.
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