Judge Presses Microsoft on Settlement Provision

A federal judge said she was concerned about delays in implementing a key component of Microsoft Corp.’s 2001 antitrust settlement with the Bush administration and a group of states.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly questioned the pace of Microsoft’s efforts to develop tools that would help other companies create smooth-running programs for the Windows computer operating system.

Microsoft and government lawyers said last week that the project, dubbed Troika, wouldn’t be completed until at least October 2006, nine months behind a schedule set this year.

“This needs to get done,” Kollar-Kotelly told Microsoft lawyer Rick Rule at a court hearing in Washington. “If it’s a question of resources, put them in.”

Rule told Kollar-Kotelly that the project has proved to be far more complicated than originally envisioned.