Is IE 7 an upgrade or an update? Microsoft very casually announced on their WSUS team blog that the February 12 Internet Explorer 7 release will be pushed out via WSUS. While a nice convenience feature for the casual user, blindly pushing major software upgrades on businesses via WSUS will cause havoc with web apps that not might work well with the new IE 7 release. Given Microsoft's history of unique IE-isms, this could be a major nightmare for IT organizations and end users.

Web browsers aren't just mere web surfing tools -- Browsers are an application delivery platform for web applications. Those can be internal company web-based apps, and Internet delivered sites for everything from travel booking to Google Apps. Plopping an IE 7 upgrade on everyone's machine will do nothing for improving IE tainted reputation.

Microsoft has a Knowledgebase article available documenting how to turn off this IE automatic upgrade but be forewarned that if you don't disable the upgrade, it's going to happen whether you like it or not. Rather laughable, the KB title states "May require administrator action to manage the rollout".

Microsoft, you're going to drive IT nuts if you keep up with this software policy for major software releases.

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