Given the problems rolling out Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), many of Microsoft's
corporate customers are wondering how the standalone version of Internet Explorer
(IE) 7.0 will affect them when it's released by year end. You might recall that
with XP SP2, Microsoft provided a blocking toolkit that let businesses temporarily
prevent the service pack from being automatically installed on user desktops.
Will IE 7.0 provide a similar capability, and will it impact the support life
cycle of XP or the other OSs on which it will run? Here's what you need to know
about deploying IE 7.0.
It's Your Decision
Because of its significant security improvements, IE 7.0 will be distributed
to Automatic Updates, Microsoft Update, Windows Update, and Windows Server Update
Services (WSUS) as a high-priority update. Unlike other high-priority updates,
however, the IE 7.0 installer will prompt users before automatically installing
the new browser. Users will see three choices: Install, Don't Install, and Ask
Me Later. There's no default installation choice. The window also provides information
about IE 7.0's features and benefits to help users make the best choice for
their particular situation.
"We're overriding the normal Automatic Updates settings," Gary Schare, director of Windows product management at Microsoft, told me. "It's an explicit opt-in, and if the user wishes to, they can uninstall it, as they can with the beta versions [of IE 7.0]."
Permanent Blocking
As with XP SP2, Microsoft has provided a free toolkit for businesses that wish
to block the automatic delivery of IE 7.0 within their organizations. There
are two major differences between the Internet Explorer 7 Blocker Toolkit and
XP SP2's blocking mechanism.
First, IE 7.0 blocking is permanent, not temporary. If you choose Don't Install,
the IE 7.0 update remains blocked unless you change the registry key value to
accept the update. The reason, Schare told me, is that IE 7.0 doesn't replace
IE 6. In contrast, when XP SP2 was released, it replaced XP SP1 in the XP support
life cycle.
Second, when the XP SP2 blocking mechanism was released, businesses had only a short time to plan how they'd handle the release. With IE 7.0, Microsoft provided the blocker toolkit three to four months before making IE 7.0 available to the public, giving enterprises plenty of time to weigh the risks of IE 6 and decide whether to block or accept the upgrade to IE 7.0.
For more information about installing and using the Internet Explorer 7 Blocker
Toolkit, see the Microsoft articles "Automatic Delivery of Internet Explorer
7" at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/updatemanagement/windowsupdate/ie7announcement.mspx
and "Toolkit to Disable Automatic Delivery of Internet Explorer 7" at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=4516A6F7-5D44-482B-9DBD-869B4A90159C.
You can download IE 7.0 Beta 3 at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/default.mspx.
Recommendations
The standalone version of IE 7.0 will be available for Windows Server 2003 SP1,
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, and XP SP2. Because it offers major functional
improvements over its predecessor, IE 7.0 might be immediately dismissed by
overcautious administrators. However, its security benefits are enormous. I
recommend that all businesses begin assessing IE 7.0 right now—a Release
Candidate 1 (RC1) version should be available at about the time of publication.
Potential pitfalls include incompatibility with internal and intranet sites,
but if those problems don't affect you, you should definitely plan to roll out
IE 7.0.
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