Those of you that are used to using Internet Explorer 6 or 7 beware, Microsoft is going to begin including the upgrade to Internet Explorer 8 in Microsoft’s automatic updates. The announcement was made that the IE 8 update would begin to be included as part of Window’s automatic update service during the third week of April. The final release of Microsoft’s latest browser has been available since March 20 of this year, but has not been widely adopted.
For users that have not yet updated to the latest Internet Explorer will begin to show up as a ”high priority” update for XP users and an “important” update for users of Vista. Apparently, Microsoft will begin by showing the update to a small audience, then expanding it to all users over the span of a few weeks. The good news is that IE 8 will not install automatically and users will be given the choice install, ask later, or abandon the upgrade.
Microsoft also has released a blocker kit to allow IT managers to keep users from installing the update. It will be interesting to see how many users go ahead with the upgrade as there are some big changes between IE 6, 7, and the newest version. So far I have mixed feelings about IE 8, but I’m still giving it a chance for now.
