When the topic of splitting up near monopolies such as Microsoft comes up, often the issue of Microsoft's innovation comes up. This topic offers the opportunity to demonstrate Microsoft's innovation via examples. It can be argued that Microsoft brings many innovative products "to the masses" by knowing just what to rent, borrow, and/or copy.

* GUI:s
** Pretty much borrowed from Xerox and Apple

* Right-click context menus
** Amiga has claimed to have this first.

* Visual Basic - Drag-and-drop form designer with quick-click event handler editor
** The basis of the idea can be traced to AppleHyperCard and Alan Cooper's company "Tripod". Microsoft licensed technology from Tripod. It could be argued that MS did a decent job of integrating visual form design and an app programming language.

* SQL-Server:
** Largely licensed from Sybase.

* FoxPro
** Purchased from Fox Software.

* MicrosoftAccess
** Elements of its design can be found in products that pre-dated it such as ExBase, QuattroPro, OracleForms, PowerBuilder, and other database tools. It could be argued that MS-Access made better use of the mouse that these other products.