Microsoft said it had abandoned plans to strip IE from the package to avoid breaching EU competition rules, but would instead present customers with a “ballot” option, allowing them to choose whether to install IE or another browser.<\/p>\n
Microsoft said the option had been tentatively welcomed by the European Commission, and received positive feedback from computer makers.<\/p>\n
The Brussels-based EU executive, which wields broad anti-trust powers, had called on Microsoft to open Windows to different Internet browsers in order to fend off litigation.<\/p>\n
“I’m pleased to report that we will ship the same version of Windows 7 in Europe in October that we will ship in the rest of the world,” Microsoft deputy general counsel Dave Heiner said in a message on the firm’s website.<\/p>\n
“We’re now confident that shipping Windows 7 with IE in Europe, as we will in the rest of the world, is the right thing to do for our partners and for our customers.”<\/p>\n
Under the new plan, people who buy computers with Windows 7 pre-installed will be presented with the ballot screen when they first connect to the Internet.<\/p>\n
It will let new Windows 7 users select and then install Web browsers of their choice to replace IE on their computers, according to Heiner.<\/p>\n
Microsoft said it could revert to shipping a Windows 7 E version, without IE included, in the European Union depending on feedback from the European Commission.<\/p>\n
“We recognise that there are still several steps ahead in the Commission’s review of our proposal and that we are not done,” Heiner wrote.<\/p>\n
“We will fully engage in that process with the hope that our proposal will be accepted.”<\/p>\n
The Commission, Europe’s top competition watchdog, opened the new front in its epic anti-trust battle with Microsoft in January.<\/p>\n
Microsoft recently declared its next-generation Windows 7 operating system ready for delivery to computer makers.<\/p>\n