Hasta La Gadget!

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire and now that the EU’s caught a whiff of alleged misconduct on Microsoft’s part, it’s dragging Windows 8 under the hot lights. Though MS moved swiftly earlier this week to acknowledge and remedy the technical glitch that prevented users from selecting alternate browsers on early 2011 Win7 machines, it now faces similar claims from third parties regarding its upcoming Win8 tablets. According to Reuters, the European Commission’s broadening its investigation to encompass allegations that Redmond is blocking the install of rival browsers on Win RT tablets running ARM chips and withholding access to full APIs. The company’s yet to issue a response to this latest bout of legal drama, but when the stakes are this high, you can be sure it won’t be before long.

Filed under: Software

EU deepens Microsoft investigation amidst claims Windows RT tablets block rival browser install originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 18:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’d be forgiven for thinking this whole browser choice issue was resolved back in 2009, but no. European regulators are back on Redmond’s back, following suspicions that the megacorp may not be complying with the deal it struck all that time ago. Specifically, the allegations focus on versions of Windows 7 sold since February 2011 that came preloaded with patches, and which may not have displayed the all-important browser selection screen that offered up IE alternatives like Firefox and Chrome.

The EU’s concerns have already been bluntly expressed by Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, who said that Microsoft “should expect sanctions” if the “infringement is confirmed” by the investigation. Almunia added that this is the first time his commission has been faced with a previous offender potentially failing to meet its antitrust commitments.

Update: Reuters reports that Microsoft has acknowledged a “technical error” that meant it “missed delivering the BCS (browser choice screen) software to PCs that came with the service pack 1 update to Windows 7.” The company apologized for the problem and said it has taken “immediate steps” to fix it.

Filed under: Software

Microsoft under investigation for not fulfilling browser choice pledge (update: MS says it’s fixing ‘glitch’) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Jul 2012 07:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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