Almost a month to go until consumers in Europe get their hands on the Microsoft’s OS, the software giant is going all out to gather momentum in their effort to make the new OS a favourite amongst one and all. Hence, Microsoft is about to release an update to Windows 8 users to enable the “browser ballot” screen as shown below.With this update, Windows 8 users in Europe will be able to choose a browser of their choice from amongst an array of browser’s  which also includes not to our surprise, Microsoft’s very own Internet Explorer.

The latest Windows 8 Update, will offer third-party browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Maxathon 3, and Opera, along with Internet Explorer. The update allows to unpin already installed Internet Explorer from the desktop, and allows the user to add the browser of their choice using the browser ballot tile on the Start screen.

Following the case in 2009, when Microsoft was found by EU antitrust authorities which accused Microsoft of misleading its consumers when it had bundled Internet Explorer with the desktop software. Microsoft had then settled the case and introduced a “browser ballot” screen to European users of Windows.In a press release in July 2012, Microsoft stated:

Under a December 2009 decision of the European Commission, Microsoft is required to display a “Browser Choice Screen” (BCS) on Windows PCs in Europe where Internet Explorer is the default browser.

We have fallen short in our responsibility to do this. Due to a technical error, we missed delivering the BCS software to PCs that came with the service pack 1 update to Windows 7. The BCS software has been delivered as it should have been to PCs running the original version of Windows 7, as well as the relevant versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista. However, while we believed when we filed our most recent compliance report in December 2011 that we were distributing the BCS software to all relevant PCs as required, we learned recently that we’ve missed serving the BCS software to the roughly 28 million PCs running Windows 7 SP1.

While the probe into the matter nears its conclusion it is understood that Microsoft has indeed agreed to dish out the BCS software to the remaining users very soon.

Source: Microsoft via zdnet