IE7 via Windows Update

I was disgusted today when I saw that IE7 was being offered via Windows update. This in itself wasn’t a surprise, Microsoft had long said they would use Windows Update to distribute it, but what did surprise me was how it was presented.

I clicked the icon to examine updates and there were about 10 or so ’security updates’ (this in itself is not unusual) and way down the bottom of the list was IE7, ticked and primed to be installed when I agreed to the other updates.

I personally don’t care - it’s not going to affect me as I spent most of my time nowadays running Ubuntu Linux but for most computer users I think they’d get a bit of a fright.

Chances are that if you are a regular computer user (i.e. not a geek) that you’re reading this after the fact - cast your mind back, do you remember IE7 installing? Were you a willing participant?

I get the feeling that Microsoft were under pressure to get IE7 out because of the way the Open Source world was driving onwards with a great head of steam, particularly with the recent surge in popularity that Mozilla is enjoying with it’s Firefox browser and Thunderbird mail client.

Microsoft is still a big company, but boy, it’s slice of the pie is getting smaller and smaller….