Microsoft continues to make it all too easy for even tech-savvy PC users to dump Firefox or Opera and make Internet Explorer 8 their default browser, complains Hakon Wium Lie, CTO of rival browser maker, Opera, which is popular in Europe. Lie is particularly peeved that Microsoft continues to label IE8 as a "high-priority update" in Windows Update, (see link) despite widespread criticism about the finer points of how Microsoft actually delivers this update.
Those who hastily accept the "express" download may not notice that doing so establishes IE8 as the default browser. "Users who don't read the small print will find that their browser preference is overridden when they run IE8," says Lie. "I believe this is both illegal and immoral."
Maybe so. But it's not especially original. Apple likewise drew criticism last year when it tried something similar, bundling a pre-checked install button for its Safari browser along with a Windows iTunes update.
