• The New York Times, Wednesday, June 20, 2007 10:45 AM

Google has prevailed in its antitrust complaint against rival Microsoft Corp. The latter agreed to change a feature in its Windows Vista operating system that Google said was anticompetitive. The out-of-court settlement means there will be no trial.

Google chief complaint was that Vista had been designed to frustrate computer users who wanted to use software other than Microsoft's to search through files on their hard drives. As yet, the changes Microsoft will have to make have not been outlined in a formal report, as the Justice Department and state prosecutors squabble over the language. The Justice Department was originally on the side of Microsoft, but some states, like Connecticut, have not decided whether they would sign on to the settlement, believing that the Justice Department should allow Google and other Microsoft competitors to participate in a hearing next week.

Microsoft must now allow consumers to decide which desktop search program they want to use. Selecting Google Desktop search will not slow down users' computers, as it purposefully does now. Google won that battle as part of its settlement, though most of its other proposed changes were not included. The company kept a low profile during this one, mostly because it's the subject of a possible antitrust investigation itself, after acquiring the ad network DoubleClick for $3.1 billion.

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