Microsoft Browser Ballot Screen Revealed – Coming Next Week

Microsoft has finally revealed the finished EU Browser Ballot Screen, and it’s set to begin rolling out next week. Microsoft came under fire last year from the EU about shipping Windows 7 with Internet Explorer pre installed. They had threatened to ship Windows 7 without a browser at all, but then came to their senses and decided to create a browser ballot screen.

Redmond’s deputy general counsel Dave Heiner warned Explorer users “what to expect”, in a blog posting.

The UK, Belgium and France will be the first to be shown the screen, which will be rolled out through Windows update to users who are running Internet Explorer as their default browser. A phased roll-out to the rest of Europe will begin from March 1, a couple of weeks ahead of schedule. Internal testing of the browser ballot screen is already under way.

We’ll begin a limited roll-out externally next week, and expect that a full scale roll-out will begin around March 1, a couple of weeks ahead of schedule

The browser choice screen software update will be offered as an automatic download through Windows Update for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. The software update will be installed automatically, or will prompt you to download or install it, depending on which operating system you are running and your settings for Windows Update.

Windows 7 users will also have Internet Explorer automatically “Unpinned” from the task bar as well. Users will then get a screen warning them that they have “an important choice to make”, before getting the following list of “leading browsers”.

To keep the EU happy, the list is presented in a random order but includes, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari and Opera. There is also another 6  browsers available to choose from if you scroll to the left.

From this windows users can take a look at each browser and easily get more information about it by clicking the ” Tell me more ” button. There is also an install button to make it quick and easy to install. The process is all very straightforward.

Source:
Microsoft Blog