Google, in a bid to compete against Microsoft is now convincing legal authorities in the US that Microsoft.'s Vista operating system is stifling competition.
In its case against Microsoft, Google has alleged that Microsoft's latest Windows operating system affects the performance of "desktop search" programmes that find data stored on a computer's hard drive.
The Vista operating system, which was commercially launched in January this year includes a desktop search function that competes with a free programme Google introduced in 2004. Google has also alleged that Microsoft had made it complicated to turn off the desktop search feature built into Vista.
With its allegations, Google hopes to show that Microsoft is not complying with a 2002 settlement of an antitrust case that concluded the world's largest software maker had leveraged the Windows operating system to throttle competition.
The consent decree Microsoft to ensure its rivals can build products that run smoothly on Windows - something that Google says is not happening.
