This problem is definitely related to the "Windows Live Toolbar Helper"
(msntb.dll) but only in Vista and NOT XP. The same helper is enabled on the
XP machine and doesn't cause problems. If I disable the Addon, the <option
selected> works correctly. Maybe this is a problem only on my machine
because I haven't been able to get confirmation that it fails on other Vista
machines. In the following example it starts up with "United States"
selected instead of Canada. The State drop-down is correct.
<HTML>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<head><title>Drop-Down Test!</title>
</head>
<body >
<table align=center border="2" width="750" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr><td>
<table align=center border="2" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"
width="450" >
<tr><td>
<form name='main' action='http://www.showmyhorse.com/index.php'
method='POST'>
</td></tr>
<tr><td align='left'><b>Country:</b>
<select name='country' onchange='submit()'>
<option value='CA' selected>Canada </option>
<option value='MX'>Mexico </option>
<option value='US'>United States </option>
</select>
</td></tr>
<tr><td align='left'><b>State/Province:
<select name='ShowState' onchange='submit()'>
<option value='AL'>Alabama </option>
<option value='AK' selected>Alaska </option>
<option value='VT'>Vermont </option>
<option value='VA'>Virginia </option>
<option value='WA'>Washington </option>
<option value='WV'>West Virginia </option>
<option value='WI'>Wisconsin </option>
</select>
</td></tr>
</form>
</table>
</table>
</body></html>