Offering an end to years of distrust and an epic courtroom fight, the surprise deal between Microsoft Corp. and the Justice Department promises to set new rules for the nation's hard-hit technology industry. Senior Justice lawyers and Microsoft executives decided to press forward without full cooperation from states involved in the antitrust case and provide results of their secret negotiations to the new trial judge, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. She has strongly urged the sides to settle since taking over the complex case in August.

Both sides planned to reveal the details of the settlement at a hearing early Friday in federal court. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft planned a news conference after the hearing. It was unclear whether officials from the states also suing Microsoft would attend. The states decided Thursday to ask the judge to give them until the middle of next week to review the settlement, which imposes some restrictions on Microsoft during the next five years, according to people familiar with the talks. The company's behavior would be monitored by a three-person panel. Oversight could be extended two more years — until 2008 — if the company violated terms of the deal.