States Seek More Oversight of Microsoft

A group of states submitted a court filing Thursday claiming that ending oversight of Microsoft's business practices in November would not allow enough time to consider the antitrust implications of Windows Vista.

The consent decree aimed to make it possible for Microsoft's middleware competitors _ software makers who built programs that run on top of the Windows operating system but act as a platform for other development, like a Web browser _ to compete fairly, even if Microsoft's operating system monopoly persisted.