Microsoft is currently gearing up for the massive, and massively important, launch of Windows 7, which goes on general availability on Oct. 22. But in China, pirates have already preceded the official launch of the new operating system, and consumers can buy a copy of Windows 7 for an absolute pittance.

Peace between Microsoft and the European Union looks a step closer today after EU officials said they would likely be satisfied with the firm’s proposals for settling the Internet Explorer bundling row. The woman in charge of EU competition policy agreed to test plans to offer Windows users a choice of browsers.

Speaking at a press conference today, Neelie Kroes said Microsoft had tweaked its proposals for a “ballot screen” after discussions with officials. Under the revised system, people setting up Windows for the first time will see a screen explaining what a web browser is. They’ll then see a list of browsers to choose between, each with a “Tell me more” button linking to more details about that particular browser.

Microsoft has filed civil suits against five people or groups it accuses of hiding malicious software in supposedly genuine advertising. It comes on the heels of a high-profile case involving the New York Times Web site.

There we were thinking the Windows 7 Web browser issue was over. But apparently not. Microsoft has proposed a ballot screen for Windows 7 users so they can each individually select their browser of choice during installation. Fair does, surely. Not so say the people in charge of Mozilla, the community behind Firefox.

Microsoft was last week hit by an injunction stating it could no longer sell Word, an integral part of Microsoft Office, in its current form. This was due to a patent infringement lawsuit by i4i concerning XML. However, it looks as though the situation isn’t as serious as first thought and Microsoft could have a couple of very easy options to solve the legal woes.

Microsoft Word is an integral part of Microsoft Office and is used by upwards of 500 million people around the world. However, Microsoft has effectively been banned from selling Word in the United States because of an alleged patent infringement.

New regulatory filings show Yahoo got a much better deal from its search agreement with Microsoft than the firms had initially revealed. Microsoft will pay Yahoo $50 million a year for the first three years and will hire at least 400 current Yahoo staff.

Europe was getting Windows 7E, a version of Windows 7 without Internet Explorer included. But no longer. Microsoft has now decided to chance its arm and assume the EU will accept its proposal of a browser ballot screen during Windows 7 installation. So Europe will now be getting exactly the same version of Windows 7 as the rest of the world.

Windows 7 is still three months away from general availability, but that hasn’t stopped the final version leaking to the Internet. Earlier this week there were rumors the Lenovo Windows 7 Ultimate OEM DVD ISO had also leaked. Microsoft has acknowledged this has happened but claims it isn’t a problem.

It looks as though Microsoft may have conceded defeat in its fight against the European Union’s antitrust charges relating to the bundling of the Internet Explorer Web browser in Windows 7. The EU wasn’t happy with the plans to exclude a browser from the OS completely, so it seems European Windows buyers will now be given a choice via a ballot screen.

Now and again a buyer of a computer with Windows pre-installed will go through the usually lengthy battle to get a refund for the cost of the operating system and instead switch to Linux. But a British Amazon customer appears to have got one of the most-hassle free refunds ever seen.

To say Microsoft has a love/hate relationship with the European Union (EU) would be completely wrong. In reality, it’s a hate/hate relationship which has only gotten worse in the past few months. But both sides may now be looking to settle the remaining antitrust issues before more fines and sanctions against the company are imposed.

Microsoft is suing three people for click fraud: repeatedly clicking on adverts simply to waste the advertiser’s money. The case, aimed at a relatively small-scale operation, appears to be both a warning and a test of the law.

European Union officials have already rejected Microsoft’s offer to sell Windows in Europe without any browser. The quick response suggests officials are not interested in doing a deal and still intend to hit Microsoft with a big punishment.

Europe isn’t going to get Windows 7. Oh no, we’re special, and are consequently going to get Windows 7 E, a version of the Vista successor without Internet Explorer built-in. Microsoft decided on this course of action to appease EU regulators’ antitrust concerns about IE being bundled with all copies of Microsoft operating systems.