Editing Vendor lock-in (section)

=== Microsoft ===

{{main|Criticism of Microsoft#Vendor lock-in}}
The [[European Commission]], in its March 24, 2004 decision on Microsoft's business practices,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ec.europa.eu/competition/antitrust/cases/dec_docs/37792/37792_4177_1.pdf |title=Commission Decision of 24.03.2004 relating to a proceeding under Article 82 of the EC Treaty (Case COMP/C-3/37.792 Microsoft) |date=2019-02-06 |publisher=European Commission |access-date=2009-06-17 |archive-date=2011-02-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110221115451/http://ec.europa.eu/competition/antitrust/cases/dec_docs/37792/37792_4177_1.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> quotes, in paragraph 463, Microsoft general manager for [[C++]] development Aaron Contorer as stating in a February 21, 1997 internal Microsoft memo drafted for [[Bill Gates]]:
{{blockquote|text="The [[Windows API]] is so broad, so deep, and so functional that most [[Independent software vendor|ISVs]] [independent software vendors] would be crazy not to use it. And it is so deeply embedded in the source code of many Windows apps that there is a huge switching cost to using a different operating system instead. It is this switching cost that has given customers the patience to stick with Windows through all our mistakes, our buggy drivers, our high [[Total cost of ownership|TCO]] [total cost of ownership], our lack of a sexy vision at times, and many other difficulties. […] Customers constantly evaluate other desktop platforms, [but] it would be so much work to move over that they hope we just improve Windows rather than force them to move. In short, without this exclusive franchise called the Windows API, we would have been dead a long time ago. The Windows franchise is fueled by application development which is focused on our core APIs."}}

Microsoft's application software also exhibits lock-in through the use of proprietary [[file format]]s. [[Microsoft Outlook]] uses a proprietary, publicly undocumented datastore format. Present versions of Microsoft Word have introduced a new format [[Office Open XML|MS-OOXML]]. This may make it easier for competitors to write documents compatible with Microsoft Office in the future by reducing lock-in.{{citation needed|date=November 2015}} Microsoft released full descriptions of the file formats for earlier versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint in February 2008.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.microsoft.com/interop/docs/OfficeBinaryFormats.mspx |title=Microsoft Office Binary (doc, xls, ppt) File Formats |website=Microsoft |date=2008-02-15 |access-date=2009-06-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090308012827/http://www.microsoft.com/interop/docs/OfficeBinaryFormats.mspx |archive-date=2009-03-08}}</ref>