EU-Microsoft browser deal requires ballot screen in Windows 8

Microsoft declined to comment when asked whether it believed it's required to offer a ballot screen in Windows 8 to European users for selecting rival browsers in the new operating system's desktop mode.

Yet the settlement specifically called out future editions of Windows. In late 2009, Microsoft struck a deal with European Union antitrust regulators that required the company to display a screen in Windows providing download links to other browsers, including Mozilla's Firefox, Google's Chrome, and Opera Software's Opera. "For Windows client PC operating systems after Windows 7, the Choice Screen [the ballot screen] update will first be made available at the general commercial release date of such an operating system and remain in place for distribution ... for the entire duration of these commitments," the document states.