Hijacking a User’s Default Browser is Never Acceptable. Repeat, Never.
By Harry McCracken | Thursday, May 7, 2009 at 8:48 am
The standard “Express” installation of the Windows 7 RC does something I thought software had stopped doing years ago:
If you upgrade from a previous version of Windows, and choose the “Express” option when installing, your default browser will be changed to Internet Explorer. Needless to say, this behavior has immediately sparked complaints from Mozilla and Opera, and rightfully so, because it’s shady at the very least.
This sounds so cheesy that I wonder if it’s a unwitting gaffe by Microsoft rather than an intentional ploy. Can we all agree that this needs to be changed for the final version of the OS?
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| Marius Sescu Says:
May 8th, 2009 at 10:37 pm[…] Insa, indiferent de browserul folosit inainte, cand ai terminat updagre-ul te trezesti cu Internet Explorer setat ca browserul implicit. PR misto de la Microsoft, […]
May 7th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Do they also offer a free trial of AOL?
May 7th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
I can agree I will not use Windows 7 unless forced to by my employer.
May 7th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
“Can we all agree that this needs to be changed for the final version of the OS?”
Why wait? Microsoft is already pushing it out to XP, Vista, and RC systems as a critical update.
It’s a highly flawed install experience. 7 click-throughs at least of No, Yes, No, Custom for the minimal preferred experience. Very cute how they tuck in selecting an alternative default search engine on a separate tab between a MSN tab and an IE 8 Welcome screen tab.
Prettier than runonce… and sneakier too. (Who knew you could miss the runonce screen?)
May 8th, 2009 at 1:32 am
No, get over it. W7 is supposed to be a clean install, so there are no competing browsers or anything on the system, so defaulting to IE is indeed, express.
Once your Windows is completely installed and you then download your browser of choice, then you can select which to default.
May 9th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
adorno: “No, get over it. W7 is supposed to be [ed. at least, Microsoft is ENCOURAGING] a clean install, so there are no competing browsers or anything on the system …”
Doh! Good explanation. Still smacks of thuggish 1990’s style marketing (hence my previous AOL comment), but at least you made a case for it this time.
Must be tough to market ANYTHING in this day and age what with millions of people picking nits.
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