Rafael offers up an interesting step-by-step guide to finding a web browser in the supposedly browser-less Windows 7 E Editions, which will be afflicting folks in Europe in about 3 months:
Mom and Dad will likely get a pre-built machine, by either a popular manufacturer or their kids, so this isn’t a problem for them. Us, on the other hand, are incredibly lazy. We won’t want to bend down and grab one of a million USB fobs. Or put yet another executable on our NAS. Or heaven forbid, waste a CD. We need something clever.
Step 1 – Launch (and configure) Windows Media Player
Step 2 – Search for your browser, using the Windows Media Guide
Step 3 – Click an ad, download your browser
Read the original post for the full details, of course. Good stuff.
My advice, however, is to just avoid this silliness and download a browser before installing Windows 7 E, copy it to a USB thumb drive or whatever, and just plug it in after the OS is up and running.
BTW: Anyone who mentions the word "Trident" like that's news just doesn't get it. Windows Media Player has long been documented to use the IE rendering engine. And Microsoft has been very upfront that the Windows 7 E Editions do not have IE, the application, but do have the underlying rendering technologies required by other applications.