Microsoft abandons plans to ship Windows 7 without IE

Microsoft have announced that they have cancelled plans to release a European version of Windows 7 which was going to not have Internet Explorer installed as standard. A while back Microsoft announced that due to the the EU Antitrust regulators they would not be supplying European versions of Windows 7 with Internet Explorer.

Dave Heiner who works for Microsoft released this statement “As you might imagine, it was not easy for Microsoft to accept the idea that we would essentially promote directly competing software from within our flagship product, Windows,”. This may prove to be quite a controversial decision from Microsoft, especially for open source browser companies such as Opera Software.

As I have always said I personally think its stupid that Microsoft have to adapt their products to suit regulations such as these. To my knowledge Apple can bundle Safari with European Mac’s so why can’t Microsoft bundle Internet Explorer with Windows 7. Check out the full story on ComputerWorld.