gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials » browser ballot http://www.ghacks.net A technology news blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Sat, 11 Feb 2012 17:32:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Browser Ballot Screen Browsershttp://www.ghacks.net/2010/02/23/browser-ballot-screen-browsers/ http://www.ghacks.net/2010/02/23/browser-ballot-screen-browsers/#comments Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:44:22 +0000 Martin Brinkmann http://www.ghacks.net/?p=23282 New information about the so called browser ballot screen that Microsoft will introduce in Europe from March 1 on have been released yesterday by Microsoft. Windows users will receive the ballot screen via Windows Update. The screen itself will only be displayed to users who have Internet Explorer as their default web browser. These users will be presented with the browser ballot screen that displays a list of 12 web browsers that the user can get information about or install on the system.

Up until now only the five web browsers on the first screen were known to the public as they were shown on all screenshots that Microsoft has released. The five browsers on that screen are the world’s most popular web browsers, namely Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome and Safari.

But there are seven additional web browsers available that can be accessed by scrolling vertically in the window. The seven additional web browsers are Maxthon, Flock, K-Melon, Avant Browser, Sleipnir, Green Browser and Slim Browser.

Most users presented with the browser ballot screen will most likely never have heard about those seven additional web browsers and it will be interesting to see how many will install one of those browsers instead of one of the five more popular ones.

What is your opinion on those seven additional web browsers? Was it necessary to include them?

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2010/02/23/browser-ballot-screen-browsers/feed/ 6 New Microsoft Proposal About Windows 7Ehttp://www.ghacks.net/2009/07/25/new-microsoft-proposal-about-windows-7e/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/07/25/new-microsoft-proposal-about-windows-7e/#comments Sat, 25 Jul 2009 10:15:15 +0000 Martin Brinkmann http://www.ghacks.net/?p=14750 windows 7Windows 7E is the version of the Windows 7 operating system that will be sold – as of now – in all countries of the European Union. It is basically a version of the Windows 7 operating system without Internet Explorer. This has caused quite some concern by users in the European Union as they face several problems that users of regular Windows 7 editions do not face including the impossibility to perform an upgrade of Windows Vista to Windows 7 or the problem that arises from not having an Internet browser.

Microsoft’s new proposal could ultimately remove Windows 7E from the operating system landscape. They suggest to provide a ballot screen after installation giving users the choice to install a web browser of their choice from a selection of possible alternatives including Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari.

A mockup screen was posted that visualizes how the ballot screen could look like (please note that the browserballot.eu website is currently not working)

browser ballot

Additional blank spots are reserved on the right side of the screen that could be filled with additional web browsers if requested or needed. It should be noted that this new proposal would mean that Internet Explorer would be installed as the default web browser during installation of the operating system and that the ballot screen would be displayed afterwards to give the user the option to install another web browser and make it the default browser on the computer system.

Microsoft’s proposal is available at the Microsoft Presspass website.

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