Windows 8, Windows 7, Vista and XP to Get Choice Screen for the Default Browser

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For the next five years, Microsoft will be serving an update to all supported Windows clients in an attempt to promote end user choice when it comes down to the default browser associated with the operating system. The European Antitrust Commission accepted a solution proposed by Microsoft, designed to boost competition on the web browser market on December 16th 2009, noting that the decision it adopted renders legally binding commitments offered by the software giant. The Redmond company will offer a Link Removed - Invalid URL to Windows users in Europe via Windows Update, allowing them to choose Internet Explorer, or a rival product, as the default browser of their platform.
Millions of European consumers will benefit from this decision by having a free choice about which web browser they use. Such choice will not only serve to improve people's experience of the internet now but also act as an incentive for web browser companies to innovate and offer people better browsers in the future," Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes says.
The decision forces Microsoft to offer the Choice Screen update for the next five years, the European Union regulators underlined, and will impact all users in the European Economic Area. For the time being, the updates served through WU will be offered to EEA customers running Link Removed - Invalid URL, Windows Vista (including SP2) and Windows XP (including SP3). However, due to the consistent time span, the Choice Screen is also bound to be made available through the Windows Update mechanisms to users of the next version of Windows, namely Windows 8, expected to be launched no later than three years after Windows 7, sometime in the 2011-2012 timeframe.
 
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