Guess which update you have to download once you’ve installed Windows 8.1GA in EU? Yes, the stupid browser choice screen. Despite the fact that MS is no more a monopoly in the Browser market, the EU is still forcing them, or shall we say, forcing us to choose our browser. God forbid that Opera with 0.5 market share should be forgotten. Common people this is the 21st Century the last time I checked.
Anyway, MS has learnt his lesson to avoid huge sum of levy from the EU just like they did with Windows 8.0 when some at Microsoft forgot to put this stupid Option. Now, who is going save us from our saviors at the EU parliament. I have already made my browser choice long time ago. Yes, I choose IE11. Stop bothering me.
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At least you get a special metro style app that we don’t get in the US! :P
Yea, I agree this is kind of weird, but it really doesn’t hurt anyone. I mean you only see the ballot once, and when you choose, it goes away, no?
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no, it dont, it still appearing… every start or restart…
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Yes, it will keep appearing till you either choose a browser. Just choose IE11, it is faster than Chrome now.
If you however don’t want to choose, and you don’t want yourself be bothered anymore, you can remove it from Auto-Start locations with built-in Taskmanager (Right-click Taskbar, select Taskmanager.). Turn off in the last tab. Or better still if you’re a Tool fan, download Autoruns from SysInternals and remove it from startups.
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For me, it reappears every time I login. I don’t know what it wants me to do. I click on any of the options, it starts a download, and I consider the dialog dealt with. But it keeps showing up again and again. Doesn’t look like Microsoft did the job properly of turning this thing off when you are done with it.
Disclaimer: I am an employee of Opera Software ASA.
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I recommend that you visit the Microsoft community section of Internet Explorer on Windows 8.1. Post your question there and community members with similar issues and/or Microsoft MVPs might be able to help you. I live in the US, so I am unable to troubleshoot the problem. Being in the US, we don’t have the browser ballot, so it’s hard for me to configure it and see what does what.
Here’s the link: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/forum/iewindows8_1?tab=QnA
Oh, and while your are at it. Since you are an Opera employee, I recommend you guys build a purely modern browser for Windows 8 & RT. Opera was one of the first (if not THE first) true alternative browsers on iOS & Android with its own cloud-based rendering engine. At this point, there are NO OTHER alternative modern browsers in Windows Store (Metro Firefox & Metro Chrome are desktop browsers with metro components, and none of them run on Windows RT). I would love to see an alternative and purely modern browser on Windows RT. Plus, unlike iOS, you CAN change default browsers in Windows 8/8.1/RT. This means that even if a browser is purely metro, it can replace IE as a default browser if the user chooses to do so.
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Good one Naz.
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