A small victory...errrr....a very small victory...but a victory nonetheless...

According to the most recent "Joint Status Report on Microsoft's compliance with the final judgments," filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, an "icon for the default browser (or a generic icon, if necessary) will replace the Internet Explorer icon in the commonly used parts of the operating system when Internet Explorer is not the default web browser." While there is no clear definition what the "commonly used parts of the operating system" exactly are, it appears that the Internet Explorer icon will vanish from the surface of the operating system, if a user installs a different browser, for example Firefox. However, there is no indication that Internet Explorer will be able to be completely removed from Windows; more likely, the software will be hiding behind corners and will be ready to take its original place as soon as the user calls.

According to the document, Microsoft already "has completed the code" for this feature and will make it available to users for "testing purposes" with the "next beta release of Internet Explorer 7 before being rolled out with the final release" of the new browser. Microsoft said that these changes will also apply to "the next version" of the Windows Media Player.
http://www.tgdaily.com/2005/10/21/mi...n_replacement/
Microsoft to allow replacement of IE7, Media Player icons in Windows | TG Daily