Microsoft is still a long way away from a scenarios where it will have to unbundle Internet Explorer from the Windows operating system. But thanks to an antitrust complaint filled by Opera with the European Union Antitrust Commission, if the succession of events will lead to a similar result as the precedent delivered by the 2004 decision, against the Redmond company involving the removal of Windows Media Player from the platform, Microsoft might just well have to offer Windows without IE. The Redmond company has already been forced by a 2004 decision of the EU antitrust regulators to sell Windows XP N and Windows Vista N editions for the European market without Windows Media Player.

Opera is accusing Microsoft of abusing its Windows monopoly by bundling its proprietary browser with the operating system and of limiting user choices. While it is obvious that Microsoft will fight a potential forced divorce between Internet Explorer and Windows, and that the removal of the browser component from the operating system won't happen over night, I am the adept of a "better prepared than sorry" strategy. In this context, there is a way to download and install Firefox on Windows Vista without touching Internet Explorer, or any other browser for that matter. All you need is a network connection.

"The ongoing issues and questions about Internet Explorer raised an interesting question: On Windows, if Internet Explorer doesn't work for some reason, how would you get a working web browser? It turns out the command line "ftp" tool (included with windows) could be used to get Firefox from an ftp mirror of the Mozilla software collection. Get to a command prompt ("Start", "Run" and type "command")", revealed William Stearns from ISC.

The Windows and "R" keys pressed concomitantly also open the Run dialog box. Users can alternatively enter "cmd" in the Search box under the Start menu, right click the selected result and select "Run as administrator". In "cmd" enter the following command without the quotes: "ftp ftp.osuosl.org". You will be asked for your user name, and just type "anonymous", and specify a password. Simply pressing Enter will deal with the password request, and you have logged in successfully. Now, type "cd /pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/2.0.0.11/win32/en-US/" and hot Enter. Then, "mget *.exe" to access Firefox Setup 2.0.0.11.exe. After the download will be completed, write "Firefox Setup 2.0.0.11.exe", this time with the quotes to install the open source browser.