Microsoft and the US Justice Department have announced a partial anti-trust settlement, under which personal computer-makers that license Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system can delete the icon for its Internet Explorer browser. The surprise announcement was made by attorneys for the two sides yesterday at a scheduled hearing on the anti-trust case before US District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson.

The settlement resolved the Justice Department's charge that Microsoft had violated an order issued on December 11th by Judge Jackson by offering computer makers a version of Windows without Internet Explorer that was either out of date or would not work.

However, the settlement did not cover the larger Justice Department charge that Microsoft had violated a 1995 consent decree forbidding the company from forcing computer-makers that license Windows also to use other Microsoft software. That case is continuing. See Technology, pages 1012