EU Version of Windows 7 to Bundle Multiple Browsers

It looks like rather than get into a costly legal battle in the EU, Microsoft has decided to give in and simply offer a choice of browsers at start up.

I can't help but wonder whether Microsoft will spin this to look like a new feature they're implementing in Windows 7, which would probably be the smart thing to do, or whether Microsoft will find some sort of loophole that continues to keep Internet Explorer on top.

For instance, if the choice screen had a nice big IE section with lists of features/etc, and the other browsers simply had their names listed next to a radio button with nothing more.

I was surprised that when I went to install IE8, Google was selected as the default search provider, not Bing.

Did you have an existing installation of IE7 where Google was already set as your search provider ?

Though even then, I guess it's a nice surprise not having MS hijack your search provider. I've read stories about updates sneaking in through Firefox extensions and the like to do things like that.

Soon I think Bing will eventually need to buy Yahoo to be more competitive.

I did have IE7 but I don't remember what search provider it used. Come to think of it, that's probably pretty likely.

I see an opinion, but no explanation. What are you basing that on?