Microsoft browser ballot to arrive next week
By Nicole Kobie,
Microsoft will start offering its web browser choice screen to UK users from next week.
Following a deal with the European Commission as the result of an anti-trust case around the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows, Microsoft agreed to show a screen advising users that there are other browsers on the market - and showing where to go to download them.
Users in the UK, Belgium and France will be able to download the screen to test it from next week, and it will be rolled out via Windows Update starting on 1 March across Europe to anyone with IE installed as their default browser.
Once the browser ballot is downloaded and installed, Windows will pop up a first screen explaining what is going on.
The next screen of the ballot will display in random order a selection of 12 browsers, including Google's Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox and Apple's Safari, as well as the Opera browser and Microsoft's own IE8. 
Under each browser icon, there is the option to install it or find out more - or defer the decision to later.
The browser choice system will also automatically unpin Internet Explorer from the taskbar, so if that's where you'd like it to be, you'll have to go back and add it again. IE won't be uninstalled, however.
You may also like...
Sponsored Links
advertisement
You may also like...
Latest Web Browsers Analysis & Insight
Are the cookie laws crumbling already?
They haven't even been enforced yet, but the cookie laws are looking a tad frail already, argues Tom Brewster.
Latest Web Browsers Reviews
Samsung Chromebook Series 5 review
Rating: 
advertisement
Most popular
- Ubuntu vs. Windows 7 on the business desktop
- York researchers heat storage to speed up data
- OneNote hits Google?s Android
- O2 trials Olympic-scale remote working
- Who to trust after the VeriSign hack?
- Lenovo beats expectations again
- BlackBerry Bold 9790 review
- Will someone rid me of these troublesome Macs?
- Google to promise fairness after Motorola buy
- Welcome to the stay-at-home Olympics
Register for IT PRO
You'll get exclusive member benefits including free whitepapers, downloads, Webinars and weekly newsletters full of the latest IT PRO news, reviews, insight and expertise.
So much for the EU ruling!!
A CHOICE!!! What a joke, MS has got away scott free again. Just how many are going the CHOOSE to download, if it means the user actually having to do anything this will be totally ignored my most users. Also IE is not removed. I thought the whole idea was that the user chose his browser on installation/setup of Windows7.
By macbits on Tuesday Feb 23
EU Medling
Why do we need this. Doesn't the EU understand computers? NO ONE is forcing us to use IE. I am quite happily using Firefox. There are those out there who do not have a good knowledge of computers and having a built in browser is good for them so long as it doesn't force the rest of us to use it. I can see a lot of people having difficulties after this thing comes out especially if it removes the IE icon from the task bar. All the EU has succeeded in doing is to force up the price of Windows. Typical.
By Birdmaniw on Tuesday Feb 23