Microsoft have been extremely quiet in recent weeks about their proposed browser ballot screen for Windows 7 users in the EU.  Finally today they made some announcements, as has been reported by Mary-Jo Foley.

The ballot screen, see above, will be delivered via Windows Update.  This means it looks as if Internet Explorer will initially be available after installing Windows 7.  Indeed in the screenshot above they say…

“The browser ballot has unpinned Windows Internet Explorer from your taskbar”

What this means for people who use Windows 7 is that, at some point shortly after you begin using it you will be asked to choose which internet browser you would like to use.  You may decide to choose Internet Explorer, and my guess is most people will, in which case it will switch it back on.  However you may choose to opt for the also excellent Firefox or the minimalist Chrome.

Microsoft have designed the screen to make the choice ‘more palatable’ to customers.  They say the changes…

Make it so competing browsers can be downloaded from the ballot screen more quickly and easily

Ensure equivalent placement on the Windows 7 taskbar for Internet Explorer and all other browser icons

Add introductory information, improving the design of the ballot page about each browser to help users make more informed choices

Alphabetize the list of browsers so that the five most popular are listed first (by vendor), followed by the next seven most popular (also alphabetically ordered), so that 12 choices are displayed in total

Provide the browser ballot to users for five years

The system will check that the user is connected to the internet before offering the choice of browsers for download and to display an initial screen explaining to users what a browser is.

This has all come about because of an initial lawsuit in the EU brought against Microsoft by Opera, who felt the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows was anti-competitive.  This is despite Firefox and Chrome both gaining significant market share over IE in recent years without any lawsuits being required.

Some people will see this as an annoyance, others as giving them choice.  Microsoft have not been forced into this action by the EU, but they have proposed the ballot screen on their own and the EU has agreed it’s a good way forward to help competition in the browser marketplace.