Fergie's Tech Blog

Microsoft to Release IE 7 as Automatic Update

Elizabeth Montalbano writes on InfoWorld:

Microsoft will deliver the next version of its Internet Explorer (IE) browser to consumers via its Automatic Updates (AU) service, but the company will give enterprises a tool to make corporate desktops bypass the update.

Microsoft plans to release the final version of IE 7 in the fourth quarter of 2006, with the browser going out via AU soon after, said Gary Schare, director of IE product management for the software company in Redmond, Washington.

Although software delivered via AU usually is sent automatically without any interaction from the PC user, Microsoft will give users a chance to opt in or out of receiving the IE 7 release, Schare said. This is following the same tactic Microsoft used when it released Windows XP Service Pack 2, which included the previous version of IE, he said. When the IE 7 release comes up on a PC's AU service, the service will ask users if they want to install it now, not install it at all or install it later.

posted by Fergie @ 7/26/2006 10:34:00 AM