Nine U.S. states and the District of Columbia—groups that didn’t sign on to the Justice Department’s settlement deal with Microsoft—are currently putting the final touches on a proposal that calls for tougher sanctions against Microsoft, according to c|net. The proposal, which is expected to be finalized tomorrow and filed on Friday, reportedly calls for attention on the matter of middleware, or issues such as bundling its Web browser with its Windows operating system, which the dissenting states believe was almost completely ignored in the settlement. The nine states are also looking at the possibility of extending their remedy proposal to include Windows XP, streaming media and Microsoft’s .Net “software-as-a-services” strategy.