Applications Development for Rival Operating Systems

The other major provision of the consent decree restricted Microsoft from obliging applications developers into contractual agreements which eliminated the possibility of developing applications for rival operating systems. Some claimed that Microsoft was using unfair tactics to leverage companies into producing applications only for Microsoft operating systems. If this were the case, by stating that Microsoft's "testing agreements with applications software developers would not preclude their working with other producers of operating systems, so long as confidential information was not revealed", would encourage competition.