There is probably no industry in which agreed-upon standards are as important as the computer industry. The proper interaction of software and hardware, software and other software, and computers with other computers via networks depend on many sets of standards and protocols. One crucial area is the ability of application programs to work with the operating system and use the computer effectively. While many of their competitors would hesitate to put it in so many words, Microsoft's dominance in the operating systems arena has created effective standards and furthered the development of application software.

Microsoft devotes a great deal of space to this in their white paper, Section D2: "Microsoft Window : An Engine For Growth."[*] There they detail the process of creation and support of the Win32 API, the Application Programming Interface that allows other software to fully use the features that Windows provides. Although it is perhaps a disturbing fact, were the operating system market more rich in competitors than it is, software companies would have to spend more time ensuring that their products worked on all systems, and less creating new and better versions.