It has been a long road; the Browser Ballot screen that Opera fought so hard for is becoming a reality. Technically, Opera did not want the browser ballet but instead wanted IE to not be included in the operating system (which I personally believe to be ridiculous).

In response to the EU gladly accepting Opera’s request, and then Microsoft bending to the EU, Microsoft suggested that that a ballot screen be implemented. Seemed like a good idea at first and Opera opted for it. However then Opera decides that this is not enough, the ballot screen should show the browsers in random order so that that IE would not show first. Like a good little dog, Microsoft agrees to this as well.

Opera at this point must be thinking they can get Microsoft to do anything now. Another request is made to have the ballot screen only show text, no icons. Opera is thinking this will help prevent the people from seeing the distinguishable blue “e” and automatically clicking that instead of considering their choices. Finally Microsoft says this is enough and does not agree with the demand. The EU must have thought that was going to far as well since they didn’t push Microsoft on it.

Now months after Windows 7 has already been released they are going to incorporate the newly renamed “Browser Choice Screen”. Since Windows 7 is already on several computers and that they will be incorporating this change into Windows Vista and XP, they have a bit of a dilemma, everyone is already using a browser. To rectify this it appears that the update will remove any pinned icons or quick launch icons of Internet Explorer from the task bar and then ask you to choose a browser. The interesting part about this is that it doesn’t appear to do anything to other browsers, nor does it uninstall IE. The only changes that are made is that it will install the chosen browser and make it the default.

The browser choice screen software update will be offered as an automatic download through Windows Update for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. The software update will be installed automatically, or will prompt you to download or install it, depending on which operating system you are running and your settings for Windows Update. If you do not have automatic updating enabled, you can get the choice screen by going to Windows Update and clicking on “Check for Updates.”

I should mention now that the Browser Choice Screen will only be implemented with Europe so everyone else will still see the same old stuff. Opera did try to get Microsoft to do this worldwide, thankfully they did not.

And finally, I now present you with the Browser Choice screen:

Over the next few weeks, Microsoft will begin offering a “Web browser choice screen” to Internet Explorer users in Europe, as required by the European Commission. Internal testing of the choice screen is underway now. We’ll begin a limited roll-out externally next week, and expect that a full scale roll-out will begin around March 1, a couple of weeks ahead of schedule.

[Microsoft via SuperSite for Windows]