Windows 7
{{Anchor|Criticism}}Antitrust concerns
### Antitrust concerns

As with other Microsoft operating systems, Windows 7 was studied by United States federal regulators who oversee the company's operations following the 2001 *[United States v. Microsoft Corp.](/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp._%282001%29 "United States v. Microsoft Corp. (2001)")* settlement. According to status reports filed, the three\-member panel began assessing prototypes of the new operating system in February 2008\. [Michael Gartenberg](/wiki/Michael_Gartenberg "Michael Gartenberg"), an analyst at [Jupiter Research](/wiki/Jupiter_Research "Jupiter Research"), said, "\[Microsoft's] challenge for Windows 7 will be how can they continue to add features that consumers will want that also don't run afoul of regulators."

In order to comply with European antitrust regulations, Microsoft proposed the use of a ["ballot" screen](/wiki/BrowserChoice.eu "BrowserChoice.eu") containing download links to competing web browsers, thus removing the need for a version of Windows completely without Internet Explorer, as previously planned. Microsoft announced that it would discard the separate version for Europe and ship the standard upgrade and full packages worldwide, in response to criticism involving Windows 7 E and concerns from manufacturers about possible consumer confusion if a version of Windows 7 with Internet Explorer were shipped later, after one without Internet Explorer.

As with the previous version of Windows, an N version, which does not come with [Windows Media Player](/wiki/Windows_Media_Player "Windows Media Player"), has been released in Europe, but only for sale directly from Microsoft sales websites and selected others.


What was studied by United States federal regulators in regards to Windows 7?