Microsoft pulling its trickery on European Commission

At the times it seems European Commission's anti-monopoly policies are there for Microsoft exclusively. Even so, Microsoft has complied and done a lot to meet the regulation for European market. This time though, it seems Microsoft is not willing to lose out and is about to outsmart EC.

The argument European Commission has this time could as well be called a Continuance War of Browser Wars that eventually put off Netscape. In particular, EC would like to see the offering of multiple browsers to European customers meaning that the Redmond software giant should provide alternatives to Internet Explorer.

Microsoft has replied to this request with Microsoft Windows 7 E, specifically targeted for European market that hasn't got Internet Explorer pre-installed, or at least that was the initial idea. Now, as the time has moved on and EC has stated that Windows without a browser is a bad idea, Microsoft has introduced a ballot screen that would make all browsers equally available to a user. Sounds most fine, but here comes the tricky part.

Microsoft's VP, Mr Dave Heiner, has stated that computer manufacturers and partners raised concerns regarding the introduction of Windows 7 E. They've said it would be confusing to introduce another version of Windows to the already long list of versions. Thus, what Microsoft's proposal really means, is that a newly purchased Windows 7 PC will launch with a specific ballot screen program to be installed over the internet as soon as it's set up in European Economic Area. But since the whole Windows update logic is tied to Internet Explorer, this is truly a bunch of rubbish as only those who have IE as their default browser will receive the ballot screen.

Thankfully enough things are not final and European Commission has yet to confirm Microsoft's proposal. Though, we don't think they are going to reject it, are we?