Microsoft Corporation's antitrust settlement case took a new turn on Tuesday, when the federal judge, colleen Kollar-Kotelly supervising the case, asked the government lawyers to come up with a way to handle Google's concerns over Microsoft's Vista operating system, reports Reuters in an article called "U.S. judge tells Google to work through Justice.

The case is related to the 2002 antitrust consent decree, that is scheduled to expire in November but has some provisions which have been extended for two years. Google had earlier gone to court with the complaint that Vista's computer search function puts other potential rivals at a disadvantage. The Judge said she would rely on the advice from the Justice Department as it represents the consumers. She also pointed out that Google "is not party (to) this case" and should take its concerns about Vista to the Justice Department and the states.

In an earlier agreement, Microsoft promised it would build into Vista an option to let users select a default desktop search program for personal computers running Windows. Lawyers for the Justice Department and states were satisfied with the step taken by Microsoft. Lawyer Steve Houck said, “ The agreement represents from our standpoint a reasonable solution to Google's complaint."

However, Google is of the view that more actions are required to be taken by Microsoft to give consumers a "truly unbiased choice" of desktop search functions. Google wanted the judge to consider a request to extend the consent decree to make sure its concerns are addressed. But Judge Kollar-Kotelly left the decision for future considerations.

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