European Version of Windows 7 will not come with Internet Explorer

The next version of Microsoft's operating system will reach the European markets without having the Internet Explorer browser pre-installed. The decision was made to address the concerns of the European Union and anti-competitive practices by the company.

Internet Explorer will be installed by both customers and manufacturers of computers that have Windows pre-installed on their equipment, but will be part of the applications included in the operating system - something that has not happened since the company decided to integrate the browser in Windows 98.

Include the Internet Explorer 4 on Windows operating system was a move that permitu Microsoft to win the "battle of the browsers" the end of the 1990s, thus relegating the Netscape browser to a remote second.

The European Commission said in January that it would investigate whether the fact that Internet Explorer is integrated in Windows could be a practice of unfair competition. The decisions in this area not usually favorable to Microsoft.

Internet Explorer is currently the most used browser in the world, but has been losing ground to Firefox, Netscape maintained a substitute of the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, which has financing from Google (which recently launched the Chrome browser ).

Windows 7 can cost almost half the price of Vista

The figures have not been officially confirmed and is still taboo for Microsoft, but the rumors are accumulating and suggest the price of Windows 7 to about half of Vista at the time the operating system was launched.

According to reports mentioning several retailers, including Best Buy in the U.S., the Starter Edition version of Windows 7 will cost $ 200, while Home Premium will be charged a $ 259.99, the Professional Edition to 299.95 and the Ultimate Edition $ 329.99.

The upgrades to the Home Premium and Professional versions are even cheaper, with prices of $ 49.99 and $ 99.99 according to information from Best Buy, but apparently this is just a promotion campaign.

When it was launched in January 2007, Windows Vista Home Premium cost 269 euros in the version upgrade, while the full version had a cost of 399 euros. For the update for Vista Ultimate price was 439 euros, with the full version to cost 669 euros.

Over time prices have been reduced to one year after the launch were 40% lower.

Microsoft will soon launch a program for automatic update, Windows Upgrade Option, which ensures those who buy computers with the Vista free upgrade to Windows 7. There is even a date set for the launch of this program.