Office Professional 2010 Microsoft makes changes t

Microsoft is generating changes to the ballot display that it proposed to the European Commission (EC) as being a approach to ensure extra browser selection on Windows PCs.The organization announced on October seven particulars of the planned modifications, and EC regulators mentioned they;d start testing those modifications among European consumers. Right here;s a screen shot with the newly modified ballot display:The inclusion of the ballot screen — which will be delivered to XP, Vista and Windows 7 PC users in Europe via Microsoft;s Windows Update patching mechanism — is one with the concessions Microsoft made to try to appease the European antitrust regulators in their investigation of Microsoft;s practice of bundling Internet Explorer (IE) with Windows. The investigation was the result of an antitrust suit brought against Microsoft in 2007 by Opera Software.Microsoft revealed its initial ballot screen proposal in July of this year. On Wednesday, Microsoft officials said they;d modify this display to make it much more palatable to regulators and its competitors, a number of whom have said the proposed screen fell short with the mark. In addition to providing an initial display that describes what a browser is and to verify a user is connected to the Internet, the second actual ballot display under the new proposal includes several modifications. These include modifications to: Make it so competing browsers can be downloaded from the ballot display far more quickly and easilyEnsure equivalent placement on the Windows seven taskbar for Internet Explorer and all other browser iconsAdd introductory information, improving the design with the ballot page about each browser to help users make extra informed choicesAlphabetize the list of browsers so that the five most popular are listed first (by vendor), followed by the next seven most popular (also alphabetically ordered), so that 12 choices are displayed in totalProvide the browser ballot to users for five years Microsoft officials mentioned they are planning to use Windows Update to push the browser ballot to Windows PCs, including Windows 7 machines which go on sale on October 22, so as not to require PC makers to preload anything extra on new machines. Under Microsoft;s proposal,Office Professional 2010, PC makers also will be free to bundle browsers other than IE on new machines, as well as turn off IE all together.Microsoft officials also pledged on October seven to do additional to share interoperability information regarding Windows, Windows Server, Office, Exchange and SharePoint with other software makers. The firm also mentioned it would address security software vendors; concerns by disclosing “specified programming interfaces addressed by Microsoft;s own security products.”Microsoft agreed to provide Windows users a option of browser via the so-called “ballot screen” choice — something the Commission originally advocated — as part of its settlement talks with all the EC. Microsoft originally was dead-set against the ballot screen option; officials stated the firm would rather ship Windows seven with no browser included at all than to ship one with a ballot display. Microsoft scrapped plans for a browser-less Windows 7E earlier this year.The EC still has yet to issue its final findings, remedies and fines (if any) in the Opera antitrust case.The EC is giving interested parties a month to comment on Microsoft;s updated browser ballot proposal. What;s your two cents? Is the modified browser ballot going to help buyers make much more informed choices?