Where’s The Windows 7 Ballot Screen?

Robert B | Oct 26, 2009 | Comments

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In the lead up to the Windows 7 release, we heard all about proposed Windows 7 “E” editions for people in Europe because of the European Commissions objection for the inclusion of IE8 in the OS. This “E” edition of Windows 7 would be shipped without a browser to keep the E.U happy, however this “E” Edition was cancelled and replaced with a browser ballot screen. This ballot screen will appear once you install Windows 7 and will give you an option to select a browser of your choice to install.

However since Windows 7 was released on the 22nd October, multiple reports have come in from users in Europe who say they were never shown this ballot screen. It turns out this ballot screen is still open for industry feedback and has not yet been passed by the European Commission as a legally binding agreement.

Browser makers and everyone else has until November to oppose this proposal, and after this the European Commission may decide to make it an article 9 decision which would make it a legally binding commitment.

Assuming the industry and the E.U agree to this, Microsoft will have 8 weeks to distribute the ballot screen to Windows 7 users in the E.U who are using IE8 as their default browser. This browser ballot screen is also set to go out to Windows XP and Windows Vista users as well. The ballot screen will be applied via a Windows Update.

So depending on the reaction of the industry, this browser ballot screen may never come to light. Opera have already expressed their dissatisfaction because the browser ballot is listed in alphabetical order so as a result they are last in the ballot screen.

We recently posted an article asking which browser you would choose if every Windows 7 edition came with a ballot screen. It also tells you a bit about each browser to help you make a decision, see it here.

Source:

The Register

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