Microsoft Changing IE Default Browser Settings

In a move that seems to respond to antitrust claims, Microsoft has announced it will let customers choose their default browser during installation.

Microsoft has been under enormous antitrust pressure in Europe about bundling its Internet Explorer software with its Windows operating system – and Windows 7 won’t come bundled with IE there.

But in a move calculated to stifle at least some of the criticism, the company has said it’s going to give the customer more control of the default browser. In a blog post, the company said:

"IE will never install, or become the default browser without your explicit consent. However, we heard a lot of feedback from a lot of different people and groups and decided to make the user choice of the default browser even more explicit. This change is part of our ongoing commitment to user choice and control.”

Anyone installing IE8 when there’s already a different default browser will see a pop-up asking if they want to change their default browser. All of this will happen in a mid-August update.

“We will make this change available in the next cumulative security update for Internet Explorer, so administrators that regularly deploy security updates throughout their organisation can easily incorporate this new behavior.”

"Administrators can find information about how to manage software and security updates in the Update Management TechCenter on Technet. Administrators can customize the default browser settings using Set Program Access Defaults.”