Microsoft stops browser selection screen

Microsoft no longer shows users in the EU a browser selection screen when they set up Windows. Internet Explorer is again the default browser of the OS. According to Microsoft, the deadline set by the EU has expired.

“Microsoft offered the Browser Choice update in accordance with the European Commission’s decision of December 2009. Those obligations under that decision have expired and therefore the Browser Choice update will no longer be offered to new users,” Microsoft wrote to system administrators who have installed Windows. manage on the basis of a Volume License. The obligation was valid for a period of five years.

With the decision, Internet Explorer is once again the default browser of Windows. The European Commission mandated Microsoft in December 2009 to offer Windows users the choice of an alternative browser by March 2010 at the latest. The European Commission was of the opinion that Microsoft would be guilty of unfair trade practices by bundling Internet Explorer with its operating systems. With the screen, Microsoft would avoid a fine, but the Windows maker was eventually fined millions for not showing a browser selection screen in Windows 7 SP1 between May 2011 and July 2012.

It is unclear what the effects of the browser selection screen have been. Opera stated that a few months after its introduction, the number of downloads had tripled. Google Chrome, in particular, has also been able to gain significant market share in the past five years, but Google has promoted and updated its browser considerably, while Internet Explorer’s popularity and development had been waning for some time.