![\"browser-ballot\"](\"http:\/\/cache.techie-buzz.com\/images\/posts\/manan\/Windows7BrowserBallotScreenGoesLive_14173\/browserballot.png\" "\\"browser-ballot\\"")
<\/p>\nHeard about that union that\u2019s been a bane of existence for American technology companies? Yeah, that European Union. Microsoft and the EU have been at logger-heads for quite a while now. There was the Media Player controversy back then which resulted in Microsoft providing a separate version of Windows for the European Union countries that did not feature the Windows Media Player, known as Windows \u2018N\u2019. Having Windows without a browser would mean killing the OoBE for a user and as such Microsoft proposed showing European users a screen listing browser alternatives for the user to choose and install. EU accepted Microsoft\u2019s solution and the ballot screen has started appearing for users. Here\u2019s what the ballot screen looks like:<\/p>\n
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(Image credit: <\/span>ZDNet<\/span><\/a>)<\/span><\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n NOTE: <\/strong>The ballot screen will appear if you\u2019re location is set to a country that is a part of the European Union AND Internet Explorer is your default browser. The option comes via Windows Update, alternatively if you\u2019re running the \u2018N\u2019 edition, you can trigger it from:<\/p>\n C:\\Windows\\system\\browserchoice.exe<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n There\u2019s a web implementation of the ballot screen if you\u2019re curious \u2013 browserchoice.eu<\/a>. The following browsers are included:<\/p>\n The browsers will appear in a random order based on an algorithm, of course like anything Microsoft does, the \u2018random-ness\u2019 is being scrutinized<\/a>.<\/p>\n While, I for one have been against Microsoft buckling under pressure to have a smooth Windows 7 release simply because this will set a precedent for others to start making noise and get a ballot screen for everything and taking this beyond Europe, which is exactly what happened. The European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) has come out with a statement<\/a> that this ballot screen option should be made available globally because users deserve better. Here\u2019s their statement:<\/p>\n Consumers deserve the same unbiased browser choice on all the world’s more than 1 billion personal computers<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n NOTE #2:<\/strong> If you\u2019re wondering why Windows 7 doesn\u2019t come bundled with a chat client and email client, well, this is why.<\/p>\n According to Neowin<\/a>, as part of Microsoft’s efforts to ensure that users stick with Internet Explorer, Microsoft has started airing several TV commercials about Internet Explorer in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Heard about that union that\u2019s been a bane of existence for American technology companies? Yeah, that European Union. Microsoft and the EU have been at logger-heads for quite a while now. There was the Media Player controversy back then which resulted in Microsoft providing a separate version of Windows for the European Union countries that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2061,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-382757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2061"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382757\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\n<\/small><\/div>\n\nWindows 7 Browser Ballot Screen Goes Live, Lobbyists Want To Take It Global<\/a> originally appeared on Techie Buzz<\/a> written by Manan Kakkar on Wednesday 3rd March 2010 01:40:57 AM. Please read the Terms of Use<\/a> for fair usage guidance. <\/div>\nDon’t miss these Related Posts:<\/h2>\n
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