As you are probably aware of, Microsoft is currently going through an antitrust investigation by the European Union. Hints so far have pointed to a decision against the software giant, two new related stories have hit the web today.
Although these are pure speculation until final official decision is made, the first suggests the European Union will give certain degree of freedom to the software maker and let them choose how to solve EU competition concerns to avoid breaching the company's intellectual property rights. The second indicates that Microsoft may be obligated to offer two versions of Windows, one which would be the same as now and a stripped-down version without any of the Media Player components.