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Microsoft is telling people that Internet Explorer 7 is a "high priority" update, but the company is taking longer than some expected to push the new Web browser out.
The software maker said it doesn't plan to push the browser update out alongside the security patches slated for today in the US. Instead, the browser update is being trickled out to hundreds of millions of users over a three-month period.
Everyone who uses an English language version of Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and Automatic Updates enabled should receive a notice to upgrade to IE7 by the end of January, said Gary Schare, Microsoft's director of IE product management. That notice will pop up on people's screens, tagging the new browser as a high-priority download.
Microsoft had said that it would deliver IE7 in November via Automatic Updates, leading some to think the browser would be pushed out alongside the company's monthly security fixes. IE7 is the first major update to Microsoft's ubiquitous Web browser in five years. It is about 15 megabytes as a download.
"Just because you get security updates on Tuesday, doesn't mean that you're getting IE7 at the same time," Schare said. "We're mostly not delivering it at high volume so that the security updates have a clear path to get out to everyone very quickly."
Although IE7 will be pushed out over Automatic Updates, people will be able to choose whether they want to install it or not. Automatic Updates will first notify users that IE7 is available. Then it will show a welcome screen that presents key features and the choices to install, not install or postpone installation.
Microsoft started the IE distribution last week. So far, only one percent of Windows XP users have received an upgrade notification, Schare said.
"Some user could have gotten it yesterday, the person sitting next to him could get it on January 10," he said.
Still, those who don't want the IE7 notification to pop up on their PCs should already have acted. In July, Microsoft made a special tool available to block automatic delivery of the browser.
The tool is meant for business users who might not be ready for an IE update -- because it may not work with certain custom-built Web applications, for example."We expect many businesses to delay deployment of IE7," Schare said.
Microsoft learned a lesson about this when it pushed out Service Pack 2 for Windows XP via the update function. Many organisations are using IE7 as part of their plans to get ready for Windows Vista. Vista, slated to be broadly available in January, includes the browser update.
The IE7 push-out process is arbitrary and handled by the same system that delivers security updates. If everything goes smoothly, Microsoft may speed up the upgrades, Schare said.
So far, Microsoft is only pushing out the English version of IE7. German, French, Spanish, Finnish, Brazilian Portuguese and Arabic are slated to follow on November 15, according to a note on the company's Web site. Other languages are scheduled to be available starting in January, according to the note.
People who don't want to wait for Automatic Updates can download IE7 directly from Microsoft's Web site.
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Ed
11/12/2006 05:51 PM
All my webpages are built with Geocities pagebuilder for 17" flatscreens and are 983x620 for display at 1024x768 and do not require scrolling when the upper toolbars are collapsed, status bar disabled, and page resized. Neither IE7 or Firefox toolbars collapse far enough for proper display, without the scrollbar. When Microsoft enables IE7 to mimic IE6 toolbars I will use it. I don't need tabs. I can already minimize 50+ windows to the taskbar for display as needed.
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