Microsoft have today released their Browser Choice Update forcing users to choose the browser they want installed on their computer. So how does this work and how does it affect you?

Key points

1. A choice of 12 browsers (7 of which this techie has never heard of)
2. The browser choice software will be delivered as part of the Windows Update system Microsoft usually uses to distribute security patches.
3. The choice screen will keep appearing until a user has made a choice. Anyone wanting to stick with IE will be prompted to upgrade to the latest version.
4. Microsoft said that Windows 7 users who have fixed or “pinned” IE to their taskbar will have it unpinned by the update. Right clicking the icon for any browser will let users pin that program to the taskbar.
5. It will not pop up in front of those who already run a different default browser, such as Firefox, Safari or Chrome.
6. Users guaranteed to see it are those that have Internet Explorer (IE) set as their default browser and have taken the option to let Windows automatically download and install updates.

How to handle the Update

After the update is downloaded and you have restarted your computer, you’ll automatically be shown the Browser Choice screen, and you can then select and install the browsers you want to use. (If the Browser Choice screen doesn’t automatically appear when your computer restarts, you can double-click the Browser Choice shortcut on the desktop to select and install web browsers.)

The Browser Choice update doesn’t add or remove any programs from your computer. If you’re using Windows 7 and Internet Explorer is your default browser, the update will unpin the Internet Explorer icon from your taskbar. Internet Explorer will still be available from your Start menu, and you can choose to pin it back on your taskbar. For information on how to pin programs to your taskbar, see Pin a program to the taskbar.

To select and install web browsers using Browser Choice

Follow these steps to use Browser Choice to install one or more browsers to your computer:

1. Double-click the Browser Choice shortcut on the desktop.
2. In the Welcome screen, click OK.
3. In the Select your web browser(s) screen, for each browser you want to install, click Install. Click Tell me more for information about any of the browsers.
4. Follow any on-screen instructions to install the browser you chose.

At Solsis we recommend using Internet Explorer 8, it’s fantastic security features and compatibility with programs such as Outlook Web Access, and Microsoft Office Web Apps is the natural partner for your current network applications

This guide has been replicated in parts from the one on Microsoft’s own website which can be found here. However the part relating to browser recommendation is purely the view of the author

When installing fonts the first thing is to save them somewhere (I normally prefer a memory key as it’s easy to find when you get to the install step) however it’s also fine to just save it to your desktop if you have received it by email.

Once you have your font saved you need to do the following:

Windows XP/2000

• Click Start, and then click Run.
• Type %windir%\fonts, and then click OK:
• On the File menu, click Install New Font.
• In the Drives box, click the drive that contains the font that you want to add.
• In the Folders box, click the folder that contains the font that you want to add, and then click OK.
• In the List of fonts box, click the font that you want to add. To select more than one font at a time, press and hold the CTRL key while you select each font.
• Click to select the Copy Fonts To Fonts Folder check box. The new font is saved in the Windows\Fonts folder.
• Click OK.

Windows Vista/Windows 7

• Right-click the font you want to install and click Install.

• Upgrades to Windows 7 from the following operating systems are not supported:
  • Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows XP, Windows Vista® RTM, Windows Vista Starter, Windows 7 M3, Windows 7 Beta, Windows 7 RC, or Windows 7 IDS
  • Windows NT® Server 4.0, Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server® 2003, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2008 R2
• Cross-architecture in-place upgrades (for example, x86 to x64) are not supported.
• Cross-language in-place upgrades (for example, en-us to de-de) are not supported.
• Cross-SKU upgrades (for example, Windows 7 N to Windows 7 K) are not supported.
• Upgrades from Windows Vista to Windows N, Windows K, Windows KN, or Windows E are not supported
• Cross-build type in-place upgrades (for example, fre to chk) are not supported.
• Pre-release in-place upgrades across milestones (for example, Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 RTM) are not supported.

Only a week to go now folks.  So the big question is will Windows 7 really fix your Vista woes or will you be stock piling those Windows XP licences.  Well in anticipation of this conversation with our helpdesk we thought we would take a look.

Over the next few weeks we will explore the pro’s and cons, and the features of Windows 7 to begin to build a picture that will give you the best possible overview of the latest edition to the Windows family.

So where to be begin.  Well first there is the edition you want.  Like Vista there a multitude of product versions to choose from:

Home Basic is not available outside of emerging markets like India so we don’t need to say any more

Starter is a low end product designed for Netbooks.  Along with only being 32-Bit Microsoft have stipulated a few requirements for the platform it’s on.  It must have an Intel Atom processor, 1Gb or less of RAM, and 256GB or less of hard disk space.

Enterprise is only available to Enterprise volume licence customers.  So if you buy your PC’s with Windows already on them (OEM) then ignore this one two

That leaves three Windows versions which is going to make this choice a lot easier.  The charts below give you an overall feature comparison and in the next entry of this series we’ll start to discuss some of these features in more depth

Hardware Support

Enterprise Features

In the next edition we will be looking at migration and upgrade options