A "technical error" related to a Windows Service Pack ends up costing Microsoft hundreds of millions of dollars in fines. It was rumored the European Union wanted to close its investigation into Microsoft's "browser ballot" screw-up and levy a fine before Easter break, a mission it's now achieved with weeks to spare. E.U. regulators decided to punish Microsoft to the tune of รข‚¬561 million, or a little more than $731 million in U.S. currency, for failing to comply with an agreement to provide users with a browser choice screen (the so-called browser ballot) upon firing up Windows for the first time. Microsoft had been complying with the order up until the release of Service Pack 1 in Windows 7. The Service Pack unintentionally prevented the browser ballot from appearing, which Microsoft chalked up to a "technical error." This didn't sit well with E.U. regulators. "The choice screen was provided as of March 2010 to European Windows users who have Internet Explorer set as their default web browser. While it was implemented, the choice screen was very successful with users: for example, until November 2010, 84 million browsers were downloaded through it," the European Commission said in a statement. "When the failure to comply was detected and documented in July 2012, the Commission opened an investigation and before taking a decision notified to Microsoft its formal objections in October 2012." As heavy-handed as the fine appears, it could have been much worse. The Commission i
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