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Microsoft has been open with their plans for releasing the new browser. They've encouraged developers to download beta versions to see how the browser reacts with various applications that use the IE engine. Even webmasters have been concerned how their sites will look. What's different about Internet Explorer is that it is used in processes that we don't always think about.

When is IE 7 Being Released

On October 6^th, Microsoft announced IE 7 would be available in the next couple of weeks. Most people should see an update notice appear in the system tray. This is the familiar text popup that appears stating “Updates are ready for your computer. Click here to install these updates.” If you don't want to wait for the notification, you can go to the Internet Explorer product page for the download.

How is IE 7 Being Delivered

The upgrade for Internet Explorer 7 will be a high priority automatic update. This means if you have your Windows Security Center Settings turned on for Automatic Updates, you're going to get notified of the new browser. The exception is people who are still running Windows XP with Service Pack 1 (SP1). I would like to say that is a small subset, but our server logs still show people who have not upgraded. Regardless of your desire for IE 7, users of SP1 should upgrade to SP2 for security reasons.

One thing that is different is even if your settings are to automatically install updates, you will still be asked if you want to upgrade to IE 7.

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Should I Install IE 7

The short answer is “yes, you should install the new browser”. The program has a number of security enhancements which you'll want such as a phishing filter. However, you may not want to immediately install it on all your machines.

Even if you use Firefox as your default browser, your system may still depend on Internet Explorer for various functions. You or your company may have specialized web applications that require IE because of Active-X components. You may also want to check if your favorite sites view properly in the new browser. You can bet we tried our site. For the most part we're fine except for some aesthetic tweaks.

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Preparing for IE 7

While you have the time, I would start thinking about applications you use which rely on Internet Explorer. Check with the companies or vendors and ask if they have verified the program works. Examples include:

• Online financial services sites (banks, brokerage, credit card companies…)
• Sites which require you to authenticate or sign on with a username and password
• Sites which requested you to download a component to work with IE
• Content Management Systems (CMS)
• Any site that only works with IE

The second part of the preparation involves your machine. While I was able to get the IE 7 Release Candidate to load on our test machine, it wasn't as smooth as I would have liked. And yes, I even did the recommended step of temporarily disabling my anti-virus and anti-spyware applications. The installation took about 30 minutes and I had to manually close processes as the system didn't want to reboot. I also ended up with extra desktop icons.

My suggestion is before you install the software, do a good cleanup on your computer. You should periodically uninstall applications you don't intend on using or trial programs that expired. Once that process is complete, backup your critical files and folders. You should be in the practice of doing backups regardless of the IE 7 installation.

If you have more than one computer, I would start by upgrading one system at a time. Once you're comfortable that everything works, start upgrading the other machines.

Once you get your machine prepped and verified everything looks good for installation, go for it. I think you will be pleased with the new version. It looks and acts quite a bit different from the IE 6.

Additional Resources

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx