The T60 hadn't been used for a while, so the first day I used it, Windows Update found a lot of updates that I let it install during the day. When I booted up the next day, a window with some text suddenly popped up. It had no identification, but the text said that the web browser was important, and that it would help me to choose my web browser. I just had to make sure I was connected to the internet, and then click OK. Initially I suspected this to be some kind of Malware or virus, and if this had been my own computer, I would probably have been very careful before proceeding. If proceeding at all.
Since it wasn't my own computer, I was a little more daring, and clicked OK. That took me to a window listing 6 different browsers; IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome, and it gave a brief description of them all. It also provided links to where they could be downloaded. I started suspecting that this was something that I had gotten through the update the day before, and a quick Google search told me what this window was. This was Microsoft's "Browser Choice Screen", rolled out through the Windows Update, as requiered by the European Commision.
BrowserChoice: What at first glance seemed to be malware, turned out to be Microsoft's attempt to tell me that there are other browsers than IE around.
The purpose of EU's demand was to try and break Microsoft's browser monopoly. Well.. Maybe monopoly isn't the right word, as there are other browsers than IE out there. But IE has a huge advantage over the other ones. IE is a part of the Windows operating system, which means it is the standard browser in most computers sold around the world. Added the fact that many users don't bother to check out other browsers, and even don't have the skills to find and install a different one, automatically gives IE a very big market share. Not because it's the best browser, but simply because it's there. So by informing IE users that there are other browsers, and explaining where they can be downloaded, other browser manufacturers will theoretically have better chances of getting their products out in the open. So far, so good.
For my own part, I have been using Firefox for some years now. When I updated from IE6 to IE7, it made my Thinkpad T30 start trashing and sometimes lock up. That really wasn't IE's fault, rather the fact that I ran XP with only 256Mb RAM. But Firefox was a little less resource demanding, so it ran better. While using Firefox on the T30, I became familiar with it, and after that I have always installed Firefox on all my computers and used it as my default browser.
So there I was: An above average computer user, getting an application installed on my comptuer that told me things I alrerady knew, and encouraging me to make choices I had already made. It made me annoyed. I always let Windows Update installs updates without checking them first, because I trust that updates are things that benefits me. But not this one. It had given me something that was totally uneccessary. BrowserChoice was a waste of my resources, and it was invasive. I wanted this thing to go away, and I immediately started looking into deleting it.
On the T60, running XP Pro, the task of deleting BrowserChoice was pretty straight forward. Since it opened up when the computer booted up, I suspected it had to be in msconfig/Startup, and it turned out that it was. I unchecked it, and the entry also gave me the location of the Browserchoice.exe file, which was in C:\Windows\System32. The .exe file got deleted, together with the desktop icon. I also did a quick search in the registry, and deleted the keys and entries for BrowserChoice there as well. That wasn't necessary, though, and unless you know what you are doing, you should leave the registry alone.
Luckily, the BrowserChoice is only applied to computers with IE as their default browser, so my T42, T43 and the Lenovo S10-2 were not affected by it. But some weeks later I installed Vista Ultimate on my home computer, and before I started installing non-Windows applications, I let Windows do updates. Firefox hadn't been installed yet, and I didn't pay attention to which updates were applied, so once again I saw the BrowserChoice window pop up on my screen. Sigh.. And removing it from Vista was a bit harder. The msconfig/Startup entry was the same as in XP. But the Browserchoice.exe file couldn't be deleted, because I had no access to it.. From the properties it turned out that the user "TrustedInstaller" owned and had the permissions for the file. So I had to go to Properties/Security tab/Advanced/Owner tab and transfer ownership of the file to the Admin user (Me) Then give my self permissions, and finally delete the file. The search in the registry didn't return any matches, but after looking for a while, I found and deleted an entry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE.
So what did this update bring me? Basically nothing more than frustration. First because I got something totally unwanted, uneccessary and invasive installed on my computer that was a hassle to get rid of. Especially in the Vista environment. Second, because I can no longer trust Windows Update. From now on I will have to carefully look through every update manually to avoid getting more stuff like this installed. I really can't blame Microsoft, as they are forced to do this. But I think they should have been allowed to include an option where you after accepting some formal agreements, and perhaps clicking a couple of "Are you sure?" buttons, could uninstall this thing.
My own selfish views aside, what does this thing bring US? I have to admit that the basic idea is good. More competition in the browser market will trigger development and innovation among browser manufacturers, which will in the end gain you and me by giving us better browsers. Maybe..?
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