Microsoft Corp. will not appeal against the European anti-trust court ruling and will start offering a version of its Windows XP operating system stripped of a built-in media player. This version is already available to PC makers, and the next step is to offer it to retail customers.

"Microsoft has decided to forgo its right to appeal," the company said in a statement.

This is consistent with the general strategy pursued by Microsoft, to comply with court rulings on anti-trust rulings rather than engage in drawn-out legal battles. This time the company chose to cooperate with the European Commission that ruled the offering a full one through retail outlets is against the European anti-trust legislature as it harms the competing media players.

"Rather than seeking to suspend the commission’s remedies, Microsoft’s focus now is on working constructively with the commission on their full and prompt implementation," the company said in a statement. "To that end, Microsoft has made available licensing information for communications protocols and has made available the first versions of Windows without media functionality to computer manufacturers."

Anyway, Microsoft has not abandoned plans for a long-term appeal that could take years.

"It is important to note that . . . we will continue our appeal on the merits of the commission’s decision," Microsoft said. "We expect to learn later this year when the court will hold a hearing on our appeal. We remain very optimistic as we move forward in this process and are encouraged that the December court order noted a number of Microsoft arguments that could provide a basis for overturning the commission’s decision."