Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP Available Now

[NICK ADSL UK]

Today Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP. I encourage everyone to download the final version from http://www.microsoft.com/ie.

Please do make sure that you read all of the notes provided to ensure a smooth update

Internet Explorer 7 checklists
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie7/downloads/checklists.mspx

Release Notes for Internet Explorer 7
http://msdn.microsoft.com/ie/releasenotes/default.aspx

Do more with Internet Explorer 7
http://www.ieaddons.com/default.aspx?cid=home&scid=0

[NICK ADSL UK]

-{ Quote: "IE7 Installation and Anti-Malware Applications

A few people have asked why we recommend temporarily disabling anti-virus or anti-spyware applications (which I’ll refer to together as anti-malware) prior to installing IE7, so here’s a little insight to the situation.

Along with copying IE7 files to your system, IE7’s setup writes a large number of registry keys. A common way anti-malware applications protect your computer is by preventing writes to certain registry keys used by IE. Any registry key write that fails during setup will cause setup to fail and rollback changes. We work around the problem in most instances by checking permissions at the beginning of setup, but many anti-malware programs monitor the key rather than change permissions. Therefore, setup thinks it has access when it starts, but then fails when it later attempts to write the key.

The majority of users likely haven’t seen any such problems even with anti-malware enabled because we work with third-party vendors to identify IE7 setup as ‘safe’ based on something like digital signatures or file hashes. While this could lead us to remove the recommendation to disable anti-malware apps, we’ve decided to leave it in setup because a number of factors may still cause some customers to have this problem. Specifically:

With all the anti-malware apps available, we don’t want to assume all of them work just because we haven’t heard of a problem yet.
Even anti-malware apps we’ve tested sometimes require the latest definition updates. If a user doesn’t have the latest definitions, he or she may still hit a problem even though we consider the issue resolved.
Failed installation is an awful user experience so we take every step to reduce the chances of setup failing.
I hope this helps answer some of your questions.

John Hrvatin
Program Manager" }-http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/10/11/IE7-Installation-and-Anti_2D00_Malware-Applications.aspx

[NICK ADSL UK]

To help customers become more secure and up-to-date, Microsoft will distribute Internet Explorer 7 as a high-priority update via Automatic Updates and the Windows Update and Microsoft Update sites shortly after the final version of Internet Explorer 7 is released (planned for the 4th quarter of 2006). Internet Explorer 7 will be available for users of genuine Windows XP SP2, Windows XP 64-bit Edition, and Windows Server 2003 SP1.

This announcement provides an overview of the delivery process and options available to organisations to prevent delivery to their users. Microsoft will revise this announcement once the specific date for start of automatic distribution has been set.
Automatic Updates Delivery Process

The automatic delivery process will notify users an update is available and allow users to choose whether to install Internet Explorer 7. The process is described below and screenshots are included at the bottom of this page.[/b]

Automatic Updates will only offer Internet Explorer 7 to users with local administrator accounts. Automatic Updates will notify all such users (including those with Automatic Updates configured to automatically download and install updates) when Internet Explorer 7 has been downloaded and is ready to install. The notification and installation process will not start unless and until a user who is a local administrator logs on to the machine. Users who are not local administrators will not be prompted to install the update and will thus continue using Internet Explorer 6.

After clicking on the Automatic Updates notification balloon, users will see a welcome screen summarizing key features of Internet Explorer 7 and presenting three options - Install, Don’t Install, and Ask Me Later.
•

If a user selects “Install”: The installation process will commence and require Windows Genuine Advantage validation and a re-boot to complete. Installation of Internet Explorer 7 will not override a user’s default browser choice and will transfer the user’s previous homepage, favourites, search settings and compatible toolbars. When the user launches Internet Explorer 7, a first-run experience will be offered highlighting new features and changes.
•

If a user selects “Don’t Install”: The notification process will not re-prompt the user to install at a later time; however, any user who is a local administrator will be able to install Internet Explorer 7 at any time as an optional update from the Windows Update and Microsoft Update sites or from the Microsoft Download Center.
•

If a user selects “Ask Me Later”: The install process will not proceed and Automatic Updates will start notifying the user that an update is available using the same process (notification balloon and welcome screen) within approximately 24 hours.

Internet Explorer 7 will replace Internet Explorer 6 on a user’s machine. However, users will be able to roll back to Internet Explorer 6 by uninstalling Internet Explorer 7 via the Windows Control Panel Add/Remove Programs utility.

For further information with regards the deployment of Internet Explorer 7 and Automatic Updates Delivery Experience Screenshots
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/upd...ouncement.mspx

[NICK ADSL UK]

Toolkit to Disable Automatic Delivery of Internet Explorer 7
Brief Description
The Internet Explorer 7 Blocker Toolkit enables IT Administrators to disable automatic delivery of Internet Explorer 7 as a high-priority update via Automatic Updates and the Windows Update and Microsoft Update sites.

Overview
To help our customers become more secure and up-to-date, Microsoft will distribute Internet Explorer 7 as a high-priority update via Automatic Updates for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 soon after the final version of the browser is released (planned for fourth quarter 2006). Microsoft is making a non-expiring Blocker Toolkit available for those organizations that would like to block automatic delivery of Internet Explorer 7 to machines in environments where Automatic Updates is enabled.

Note:
The Blocker Toolkit will prevent machines from receiving Internet Explorer 7 as a high-priority update via Automatic Updates and the “Express” install option on the Windows Update and Microsoft Update sites. The Blocker Toolkit will not expire.
The Blocker Toolkit will not prevent users from manually installing Internet Explorer 7 as a Recommended update from the Windows Update or Microsoft Update sites, from the Microsoft Download Center, or from external media.
Organizations do not need to deploy the Blocker Toolkit in environments managed with an update management solution such as Windows Server Update Services or Systems Management Server 2003. Organizations can use those products to fully manage deployment of updates released through Windows Update and Microsoft Update, including Internet Explorer 7, within their environment.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=4516A6F7-5D44-482B-9DBD-869B4A90159C&displaylang=en

[NICK ADSL UK]

IE7 for the World
-{ Quote: "Now that we have released IE7 in English, I want to update everyone on our plans for other languages. The short version is that we will be releasing IE7 in all languages available for each version of Windows – twenty-four fully localized languages in total. In two to three weeks, we will ship the Arabic, Finnish, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish language versions. The remaining languages will be released in phases between November and January. I have listed the set of fully localized languages by operating system and platform below.

In addition to these full language versions, we will release the Multi-language User Interface (MUI) version in January, and the fifty-five Windows XP Professional Language Interface Pack (LIP) versions of Internet Explorer 7 after that. You can find more information on the Windows Multilanguage User Interface (MUI) Version and Windows XP Professional Language Interface Pack (LIP) at
http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/reference/muizone.mspx

Tony Chor
Group Program Manager

http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/10/18/ie7-for-the-world.aspx" }-

[NICK ADSL UK]

This is just a reminder that Windows Internet Explorer 7.0 for Windows XP is now available for download from the Microsoft update website and is regarded as a high priority update. Please do remember if you haven't already is to read all of the notes carefully so that the transition between IE6 to IE7 will be as smooth as possible :)

Release notes have been updated and can be found here
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/aa740486.aspx

Download
http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-us