“Microsoft Standard” is when Microsoft takes an existing standard, makes a slight change to make it proprietary and implements. In this manner, Microsoft can claim to support and use open or industry standards, but effectively blocking other parties from accessing or using these technologies to interoperate.

1) – Microsoft takes existing standard and extends it to make it proprietary.

2) – Microsoft develops own technology and declares that whole world will use it – and probably declaring it a standard.

Example 1: Co-opting Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) for Active Directory, a directory service. Some years later allowed open standard LDAP to be able to interoperate.

Example 2: Kerberos – Microsoft co-opts the MIT Kerberos standard, extends it with a few additional proprietary variables thus preventing anyone from interoperating with Active Directory while claiming to use proven, open source technology.

Example 3: C# – Microsoft develops extensions to C++ without reference to external bodies.

Example 4: Oh go on, find your own.