Google Complaint Spurs Vista Revision

Microsoft has caved in to Google's antitrust complaints and agreed to alter the search tools in its new Vista operating system by the end of the year. The move is a victory for Google, which complained to antitrust regulators that Vista's hard-drive indexing was difficult to switch off and made alternatives—like Google's own Desktop Search—run slowly.

Microsoft will modify Vista as part of the new OS' first service pack by permitting users to select a default search program that receives system priority. But Google could reject the changes, says Ars Technica—Microsoft is keeping Vista's built-in search in the upper-right corner of all Explorer windows, an arrangement that may overtax system resources. (More Google stories.)