Mozilla contributor Stephen Horlander is still hard at work, sharing his ideas for a revamped Windows 7 theme for Firefox 4.0.

According to Horlander, the expected Firefox facelift is now solely expected in Firefox 4, and not gradually through Firefox 3.7 and Firefox 4.0.

In this revision, the Application button (marked #1 on the mockup above) has been reworked to incorporate the new Windows 7 single button menus, already present in Paint and Wordpad on Windows 7.

Work has also been done on the toolbar and location bar.

More mockups and information can be found on Horlanders blog post.

Current Firefox users can download the Strata40 Firefox Theme, which gives the browser a similar appearance.

After announcing that Windows 7 would ship in the European Union without Internet Explorer, Microsoft has done a back flip and will once again include the companies web browser.

Microsoft released the following statement:

In the wake of last week’s developments, as well as continuing feedback on Windows 7 E that we have received from computer manufacturers and other business partners, I’m pleased to report that we will ship the same version of Windows 7 in Europe in October that we will ship in the rest of the world.

One reason we decided not to ship Windows 7 ‘E’ is concerns raised by computer manufacturers and partners. Several worried about the complexity of changing the version of Windows that we ship in Europe if our ballot screen proposal is ultimately accepted by the Commission and we stop selling Windows 7 ‘E’. Computer manufacturers and our partners also warned that introducing Windows 7 ‘E’, only to later replace it with a version of Windows 7 that includes IE, could confuse consumers about what version of Windows to buy with their PCs.

A ballot screen update is still said to be on the cards for all Windows XP, Vista and 7 European Users if the EU accepts Microsoft’s proposal.

Microsoft is proposing to release Windows 7 E in the European Union (EU), a version of Windows without Internet Explorer.

The move is aimed at pleasing the European Commission regulators who are currently taking action against Microsoft over it’s bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows.

If agreed upon, Microsoft will completely remove Internet Explorer from Windows, and not just hide the browser like is currently possible. Despite this move, manufactures are still likely to release PC including Internet Explorer.

We will let you know Microsoft’s final decision when it is made.

With Windows 7 Release Candidate just out the door, it seems the operating system is already raising complaints from Mozilla and Opera over the continued bundling of Internet Explorer.

“Our initial review suggests this is a blatant use of the Windows operating system to change the market dynamics of browser usage,” said Mozilla Chairperson, Mitchell Baker.

This is despite the fact that Internet Explorer 8 is now an optional component in Windows 7.

Microsoft still has a month to address the anti-competitive complaints bought against it by the European Union.

Microsoft has confirmed that it has received a one-week extension from EU antitrust regulators to respond to charges stemming to anti-competitive behaviour.

The complaint is for Microsoft bundling Internet Explorer with Windows, hence discouraging competition in the browser market.

At this point it should be noted that with early builds of Windows 7, Internet Explorer can be removed from the system.

If Microsoft loose, the company may be forced to offer multiple browsers with new copies of Windows.

Microsoft have till April 28 to respond to the Commission’s statement of objections.

New Windows 7 betas show that Internet Explorer 8 is an optional install, a move which should keep the EU and Opera happy.

To uninstall Internet Explorer from Windows 7 follow these steps:

• Go to Control Panel
• Open Programs
• Click Turn Windows features on or off
• Deselect Internet Explorer 8

Microsoft has released a new update for Windows 7 users for Internet Explorer 8.

The update – dubbed a compatibility and reliability update – addresses a few issues people were having. A list of fixes include:

• When Internet Explorer 8 is installed with Adobe Flash Player 10, Internet Explorer may become unresponsive.
• You experience a Print dialog box that is unusable when you try to print an Adobe PDF document.
• After a crash, Internet Explorer 8 becomes unresponsive and you must restart the computer to resolve
  the problem.
• Internet Explorer 8 may crash when you visit some Web sites.
• Internet Explorer 8 may crash when you resize the browser window.
• Internet Explorer 8 does not seem to remember information that was stored in cookies on the computer.
• Popular third-party extensions cause crashes in Internet Explorer 8.
• Previously blocked third-party extensions are no longer blocked after you upgrade to Internet Explorer 8.

The update will be pushed out to Windows 7 users via Automatic Updates or can be manually downloaded from Windows Update.