Microsoft will commence rolling out the European-Commission-stipulated browser-ballot screen, which will current to Windows consumers a list of browser choices, as of the week of February 22.As a result of its antitrust settlement together with the European Commision in the Opera browser-bundling case, Microsoft is necessary to give he browser ballot screen — which lists the top 10 (by market share) browsers that run on Windows, with information about each — to Windows people in most of the countries in Europe.A limited external roll-out kicks off next week within the United Kingdom,
Microsoft Office Pro 2010, Belgium and France, together with the full-scale rollout across Europe commencing around March 1,
Microsoft Office Pro Plus 2007, according to a blog February 19 blog post by Dave Heiner,
Office Home And Business, Microsoft Vice President and Deputy General Counsel.Starting next week, people inside the early-rollout countries can choose to download the browser-ballot update from Windows Update. Once the full-scale rollout begins, Microsoft plans to offer you the update as an automatic download via Windows Update for Windows XP, Windows Vista and
Windows 7. More specifics from Heiner;s post:“The software update will be installed automatically,
Windows 7 Ultimate Product Key, or will prompt you to download or install it,
Genuine Office 2007, depending on which operating system you are running and your settings for Windows Update. If you do not have automatic updating enabled, you can get the choice display by going to Windows Update and clicking on ‘Check for Updates.;”Via the ballot, customers will be presented with three solutions: “Install” to install one with the listed browsers; “Tell Me More” to get more information on the various browsers (with links and logos provided by each vendor); and “Select Later” to postpone having to make a default browser selection.Microsoft originally fought hard against the browser ballot — to the point where the company almost went so far as to create a whole new
Windows 7 SKU (
Windows 7E) that wouldn’t offer a way for consumers to get on the Internet and choose a browser. Within the end, the Softies decided to settle rather than fight, and the soon-to-be-implemented browser ballot is the end result.