personally for windows XP and 7
i did not care one way or the other IF
IE5 to 9 were installed
or if "windows media player" is installed
( but if I unstall it IT HAD BETTER STAY UNINSTALLED
i lost count of how many times I UNINSTALLED WMP only to have it reinstall on the next boot.

BUT
I DID CARE A LOT about MY SETTINGS staying SET

if Mozilla 0.7 i think to firefox14 WERE set AS MY DEFAULT
and that SMplayer WAS SET AS MY DEFAULT
THEN they should STAY SET AS MY DEFAULT
Microsoft HAS NO BUSINESS CHANGING MY SETTINGS !!!!!

Actually, in a legal sense, they probably do have that right. People do not buy the operating system. They buy the privilege of using it. The OS remains the legal property of MS and users are bound to the stipulations of the purchase contract. It has been a while since I read it, but if I remember correctly, there are provisions governing what may and may not be installed, and MS having the right to check computers for "illegal" content, et cetera. I am sure the legal wording can be used to justify "MS changing the settings." If that were the case, but it is not. MS is not changing settings. They are simply not allowing users to change them. (Which, of course, is a reason to not like using Windows.)