Browser Choice Update Coming to WSUS

IT professionals using Windows Server Update Services to administer updates in their organizations will notice that a new product category will be added soon, in relation to the browser ballot screen update that Microsoft is serving to users in Europe. “EU Browser Choice Update-For Europe Only” will be the new category added under WSUS, as the Redmond company will start delivering the Browser Choice Update for business users in the European Union.

“There will be a new product category added to your WSUS server under the existing Windows family titled ‘EU Browser Choice Update-For Europe Only’ to support the release of the EU Browser Choice update (KB976002),” a member of the WSUS team revealed.

Microsoft started serving the Browser Choice Screen to Windows users in Europe that have Internet Explorer set as default on March 1st, 2010. Opera Software, the company that debuted the legal action against Microsoft with the European Antitrust Commission, said that, because of the new browser ballot screen, downloads of the Opera browser have tripled. Microsoft has not made public any statistics related to the Browser Choice Update, but Internet Explorer’s month-over-month market-share drop hasn’t accelerated because of the refresh.

“The Browser Choice update is a software update for Windows that Microsoft is required to distribute in Europe as part of legal Commitments to the European Commission. The Browser Choice update is designed to inform customers in the European Union who currently have Internet Explorer set as the default browser on their computers of the other web browsers available to them. The Browser Choice Screen provides consumers with an easy way to see what other web browsers are available, to learn about those browsers and to install them if they choose to do so,” the WSUS team representative added.

Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) RTW is available for download here (for 32-bit and 64-bit flavors of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008).

Firefox 3.6.3 Final for Windows is available for download here.

Google Chrome 4.1 Stable is available for download here.

The latest release of Opera 10.50 is available for download here.