2 Years Later, People Notice That The Ballot Screen Is Gone

By | July 23, 2012 | 4 Comments

2 Years Later, People Notice That The Ballot Screen Is GoneEU begins investigation.

Well, what do you know, for a feature that was widely requested by a lot of web browser makers, it looks like 1 out of more than 1 billion PC users has actually noticed that his bellowed ballot screen has since disappeared.

Apparently, with the release of Windows 7 SP1, the software giant has accidentally removed web browser choice screen and surprisingly, no one has ever noticed. Not until now, at least.

The good news: Microsoft immediately confirmed the issue and is rolling out a patch to fix this.

The bad news: EU began the investigation and if they are not in a good mood, the fine for agreement violation might be as high as $7 billion. However, as a sign of good will, Microsoft has offered to extend the browser ballot agreement for another 18 months.

Whether or not that’s enough, we will have to wait and see.


About (Author Profile)


Vygantas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism carrier back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.

  • Steve Key

    Most Europeans and other Windows users who bought their copy of Win7 in Europe got the ballot screen when they installed their copy of Windows, Downloaded and installed the Browser of choice, so it was irrelevant to them if the ballot screen was removed with SP1.

    Don’t think for a minute that Microsoft “accidentally” removed the ballot screen, as as sneaky  and conniving as Microsoft is, they did that on purpose, thinking that nobody would notice!!

    Now, the EU is aware of the stunt, as well as others MS is pulling with Windows 8, there will be hell to pay, along with sanctions and hefty fines, so Microsoft had better wise up and get their act together!! 

    The Anti Virus companies will be hounding the EU, as Microsoft also installed their own piece of junk AV onto Win8, so more ammunition for the EU!!! 

    • Przemysław Lib

       Nah. Writing complex software is just complex.

      And EU would put fine on MS for doing it on purpose (if they could prove it). So no sane manager would allow such operation.

  • http://marcosc.com/ Marcos

    Theoretically, it should be possible to track the impact of the ballot screen through browser stats in Europe before the bug was introduced and immediately after. I worked on the ballot screen proposal briefly while at Opera so I would be interested to see if it made a squat of difference… prolly not. 

  • Tiago Sá

    Make them pay Greece’s debt I say!!!

    And Spain’s too, while they’re at it.

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