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By Joe Wilcox, 28 August 2002 09:30

NEWS Microsoft has disclosed a raft of technical information which is crucial to third-party developers' efforts to create software that works well with Windows. The company released the information as part of its pending settlement with the Justice Department and nine of 18 states. The settling parties are waiting for a federal judge to either approve or reject the November agreement. The software titan posted the information on the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) website one day ahead of the information's scheduled Wednesday release. Completion of the disclosure clears the way for the release of Windows XP Service Pack 1, the first major update to the operating system Microsoft launched in October. Among other things, Service Pack 1 contains a new control for setting default middleware programs, such as web browsers and instant messaging software. Disclosure of the technical information could rebuff long-standing criticism that Microsoft used undocumented application programming interfaces (APIs) to make the company's software work better with Windows than competitor's products. During the antitrust case, government prosecutors argued that Microsoft in fact withheld such information so its middleware programs would have an advantage over those from other companies. Microsoft began making the technical disclosure in mid-August, through the MSDN website, and released the full list of 272 APIs on Tuesday. After the release of Windows XP Service Pack 1, Microsoft plans to make available a software development kit (SDK) for taking advantage of the technical information. A Microsoft spokesman said: "This is just another step in fulfilling our obligation under the proposed consent decree. The consent decree requires that we disclose the APIs before the release of (Service Pack 1), so we did it ahead of time. As we explained earlier this month, we spent a great deal of time and energy in terms of identifying and documenting these APIs. There were very few exemptions in terms of withholding them." Some analysts see the disclosure of the APIs as an important first step for levelling the playing field between middleware programs like Microsoft's media player and competing products from RealNetworks or MusicMatch, among others. Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg said: "The release of the API information along with the SDK will allow software developers to tap into the full functionality of Windows Media. This type of broad support leads to the creation of ad hoc communities to provide features and functions not in Media Player natively and therefore helps build adoption rates [for third-party programs]." But IDC analyst Al Gillen said it may be too early to tell what good the disclosure will do, if any. "The value this is going to have on the industry is going to be difficult to determine over the short term," Gillen said. "But you may look back five years from now and say, 'Microsoft released 270 or so APIs and 269 weren't that meaningful, but this one was picked up by this software company that leveraged it and became a superstar.' It's hard to predict what's really going to happen." Joe Wilcox writes for News.com