Judge presses for more from Microsoft

The judge presiding over Microsoft's antitrust case said on Tuesday that the company needs to make available the details of how its different programs work together, according to a Dow Jones Newswires report.

The comments, by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, came as part of a regular status conference to discuss Microsoft's compliance with its antitrust consent decree.,

According to Dow Jones, Kollar-Kotelly said the technical documents are "integral to interoperability" when it comes to creating Windows programs. According to the wire report, Microsoft officials told Kollar-Kotelly that they can have a draft version of the requested documentation by March and a final version by the end of next June.

It's an interesting issue, particularly as Microsoft works to more closely tie its desktop programs to online services. In addition to efforts on the application side, Microsoft has also dabbled in linking various parts of the operating system to online services.

Windows Vista, for example, shipped in November 2006 with a built-in Windows Mail e-mail program and Windows Photo Gallery, a tool for viewing and organizing photos. Since then, though, Microsoft has released downloadable programs that essentially replace those operating system components. Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows Live Mail are more tightly integrated with Microsoft's online photo, blogging and e-mail services.

The company is expected to take this another step further with Windows 7, the new version of Windows that Microsoft is aiming to ship late next year.

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