Is Microsoft forcing Vista on users?

Microsoft Corp, the world's largest software maker, is being probed by Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission after an activist group filed a complaint saying consumers are being forced to buy its Windows Vista operating system.

Microsoft can face fines of as much as NT$25 million ($796,000) and be ordered to halt illicit practices if found guilty of fair-trade breaches.

Microsoft should be fined for using its monopoly to force consumers to adopt Vista after the company ended sales of Windows XP in June, Taiwan's Consumer Foundation, a non-profit group, said in its complaint posted on its Website.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, stopped selling XP individually and pre-installing the operating system in most computers in June to spur Vista sales.

Vista, which was released for consumers in January last year, requires more memory capacity and greater processing power than XP.

Demand for XP
The Consumer Foundation said its research showed 56 per cent of consumers buying a computer with Vista would reinstall XP, while 67 per cent oppose Microsoft ending the sale of the earlier operating system.

Windows XP remains available preinstalled in some low-cost computers such as Acer Inc's Aspire One laptop.

Under Taiwan's Fair Trade Act, a company may not “use incentives or other devious means to induce a business to alter a consumer's shopping choices,” the foundation said in the statement.