According to a Wall Street Journal report, the European Commission (EC) is seeking the views of hardware and software vendors, by the way of a questionnaire, on the possible ways in which to prevent the dominance of Microsoft Corp in the Internet browser market.

The anti-competitive practices of Microsoft have been under the EC scanner particularly because of its alleged bundling of the Internet Explorer web browser with Windows software - a move that clearly thwarts competition in the browsers' markets.

EC officials, who are reportedly soliciting the help of rival browser vendors, including Opera, during their course of their anti-trust dealings with Microsoft, are looking at different possibilities whereby Microsoft can make way for competition on Windows systems.

Going by the information provided by people in-the-know, in the EC's questions asked to companies pertain to the type of suggestive automatic downloads Microsoft should provide to other vendors; thereby highlighting different options for the "ballot box" of browsers that might find an inclusion within Windows.

Though Microsoft is also involved in a legal battle with the European Union over unending complaints about its compliance to provide interoperability information to developers, which makes it harder for certain third-party applications to work with Windows; EU said that its anti-trust proceedings against Microsoft will not be carried over to the company's future editions of its products!