Microsoft, Aol Declare Truce

America Online Inc. and Microsoft Corp. put aside a year of acrimony Tuesday with an alliance that may broadly affect the future of online services and software development.

The deal gives America Online exposure on virtually every new personal computer, and Microsoft a boost in its struggle against Netscape Communications Corp. to influence rapid changes in software development.

It ends months of bitterness between the companies over Microsoft’s integration of its own online service with its core product, the Windows 95 operating system that runs basic functions of most personal computers.

The Justice Department has kept alive an antitrust investigation of Microsoft because of complaints by America Online and other online firms about the connection between Windows 95 and the Microsoft Network online service. The Justice Department declined comment on the probe Tuesday.

The deal also caps a week of arrangements by America Online with Apple Computer Inc., AT&T Corp. and Netscape that may lower its costs and expand its base of 5 million subscribers, the biggest of an online service.

“They help clear the deck to focus on the real issue, which is what will AOL’s content strength be in two to three years,” said Bill Bluestein, analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass.