IE7 To Ship With Windows Patches Tomorrow [Not]

An anonymous reader writes, "Microsoft plans to push out Internet Explorer 7 as a 'high priority update' when it ships security patches tomorrow, according to Washingtonpost.com's Security Fix blog. That means anyone who has Windows configured to download and install patches automagically from Redmond will be greeted with IE7 next time they boot up their machines. In related news, it appears IE's worldwide market share actually increased a couple of points since July, despite a number of high profile zero-day attacks this year." The article notes that the IE7 "containment wall" protected mode will not be available on XP, but only to those who purchase Vista.

Update: 10/09 21:26 GMT by kd : An anonymous reader points to this Microsoft blog posting where it is revealed that the article linked above is incorrect. IE7 will not be pushed tomorrow.

Means Nothing

[Anonymous Coward]

In related news, it appears IE's worldwide market share actually increased a couple of points since July, despite a number of high profile zero-day attacks this year."

As long as the average user doesn't take security into consideration on their computers - which a majority of them do not - then the number of zero day attacks mean nothing. I really don't think that would have any bearing on IE's market share increasing or decreasing.

A proposal that cannot be rejected?

[rumith]

How nice. It's like I come and replace your old rusty garage door with a brand new one, with all the bells and whistles, some heavy armor and even an electronic keypad to open it. However, I will not allow you to change the password to open the door from the factory default "1234". Unless you pay me, that is.

The biggest inconvenience

[ezratrumpet]

...will be to those people who have no idea when they start their machines that they must endure a lengthy install and restart process before they can get to work.

Re:Thank God

[nuzak]

> Why do people, the MAJORITY of people, keep using it?!?

Because it's good enough for them.

Am I The Only One Concerned?

[The Real Nem]

I'm sure IE7 is a positive step from IE6, but how big of a resource hog is that shinny new interface? When I updated to Windows Messenger Live (yes I'm aware of the alternatives, but 99% of my friends use it) I couldn't believe how much resources the thing ate up. Right now it's sitting at a ridiculous 48 MB of memory usage.

More to the point, how much of IE7 is integrated into the kernel and how much memory does it consume when I'm not even using it? How does it affect boot times? I'm unlikely to use it for anything I don't have to so I think I'll be avoiding it for as long as possible.

Re:every time I try firefox, I go back.

[krell]

"I'm going to assume you never looked under Tools->Options->Privacy->Passwords because there is this handy checkbox that turns off saving passwords"

You are right. I didn't dig deep in obscure menus to kill this annoyance that (1) should not be the in the first place and (2) should have a turn off option right on the pop-up. I know, it's an old glitch. Netscape has had it going WAYYY.... back.

Re:Yay for CSS!

[pe1chl]

not too quick... the CSS support in IE7 still sucks badly when compared with competing browsers.
sure it is better than IE6, but don't assume your valid CSS will work OK in IE7, it probably will not.

Re:Good or bad news for the web developers?

[xENoLocO]

The windows virtual machine method is a pain. I wasn't aware that method was reliable, since the last time I read about it they were still having issues getting it to work properly.

"... I wonder how you manage with CSS? I personally use dreamweaver ..."

Says he with 20 validation errors on his website. :)

Why so cagey?

[LordSnooty]

I've spent the day co-ordinating my department's response to the auto-install of IE7, since several of our apps are incompatible. We've had to block it with the reg key. But why are they so cagey about the actual release date? "This month" isn't good enough, I need a precise date if I'm to avoid a phalanx of users unable to use business-critical web sites. What can be so hard about it? Have they not set a date themselves? If not, why say "this month"? They bang on in their blog about how we ought to be ready, and here's a load of tools to help you, but we won't give you the exact date, that would ruin the game, right?

Re:every time I try firefox, I go back.

[fprintf]

My guess is that if you cannot spell "HIPAA" correctly, you won't be working for your current employer for very long. Remember, there are no hippos in HIPAA.

HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It is so commonly misspelled that the link you provided redirects to the appropriate link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIPAA [wikipedia.org]

Re:Yay for CSS!

[diegocgteleline.es]

With this news, though, I can go back to writing real CSS! This will save me so much time!

No, it won't. IE7 doesn't improve CSS support that much. Yes, they fixed it a bit, but it's mostly the same.

IE7 = tabs + new UI

What I don't understand is why it took them so much time to release this crap. I guess that because IE is tied into XP and so many things depend on it they spent most of the time trying to track down regressions from crappy 3rd progarms

Re:Actually, 'Yay!'

[Kelson]

Its funny how the best tool for the job theory goes out the window when it comes to Firefox.

That depends on "the job." For Firefox 1.x and Opera 7-8, if "the job" required WYSIWYG text editing or heavy AJAX functionality, then Firefox was the best tool. If "the job" involved highly advanced CSS, then it would have been Opera.

Don't assume everyone uses the web the same way you do. That's the same mentality behind the "Oprah sux b/c it don't have no extenshuns" attitude.