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Microsoft Upgrading Windows Users To Latest Version of MSIE

Posted by timothy on from the great-and-powerful-oz dept.

helix2301 writes "Microsoft will be upgrading all Windows XP, Vista and 7 users to the latest IE silently. They are doing this because they have found a large number of non-patched systems. Microsoft pointed out that Chrome and Firefox do this regularly. They will start with Australia and Brazil in January, then go world-wide after they have assured there are no issues."

8 of 476 comments (clear)

  1. start with Australia and Brazil by epedersen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Do they start with Australia and Brazil because they do not care about the users there?

  2. I like there strategy, I like it a lot... by thestudio_bob · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They will start with Australia and Brazil in January, then go world-wide after they have assured there are no issues.

    Haha, I guess a big thanks goes out to Australia and Brazil for being the beta testers. Thanks!

    --
    The real Sig captains the Northwestern. This one captains /.
  3. A web developer says thank you! by mrtwice99 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I know there might be negative ramifications, but I'm glad to see this day arrive. The sooner old IEs die, the better.

  4. Good. by wolrahnaes · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Fuck IE6. Fuck it hard. Companies that have been dragging their feet on this for years need a hard kick in the ass, and this is how to do it.

    If something breaks because of this, you only have yourself to blame. Anyone still running this shit intentionally knew they were on a path to pain.

    --
    I used to get high on life, but I developed a tolerance. Now I need something stronger.
  5. Re:For your own good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And what browser do you use? Firefox? Chrome? both of those already do this. This is actually a good idea. I know that at both my office and my parents house that if a screen comes up asking them to update, it's *close* "I'll update later"... this will go on until I manually run the updates because they don't want updates taking time away from facebook or shopping online. Automatically updating like this will silently fix issues, which is a good thing for the bulk of the population that still uses IE.

  6. Re:We tried a big IE8 rollout last summer by Laxori666 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm on Chrome. I don't use bookmarks anymore. Just: "r", "g", "d", "s", "st", "sl".

  7. Re:For your own good by hawkinspeter · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe companies that make stupid "lock-in" decisions should reap the rewards of their own stupidity and short-sightedness.

    --
    You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
  8. Re:For your own good by TheRealGrogan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Umm, Firefox and Chrome don't break the system when they update and if they do, it only takes a minute to uninstall and reinstall the desired version. It is also very easy to opt out.

    Internet Explorer upgrades are not something to be taken lightly, because:

    a) They can affect the Windows shell
    b) Programmers may be (correctly or incorrectly) relying on behaviour of its APIs

    Internet Explorer upgrades can break shit.

    Another example, I have noticed that adding IE8 to an older Windows XP computer slows the whole system down. (That sucks when you don't even use the browser)