Windows is telling me a critical update is available: IE 7. Should I install it or not?
I use Firefox 2.0 as my default browser, and generally only go back to IE when I come across a (badly designed) site that seems to require it.
There was recent a Pit thread criticizing IE 7’s design, but I didn’t see anything in there that suggested just having it on your system posed any problems.
So is there any serious downside or upside to going ahead and installing it?
None on my end. And I also use Firefox 2.0 as my default browser.
When speaking of hazards to computer security, IE leads the list.
I wouldn’t install it. But that’s just me.
I just did (I was running the beta version for 2-3 months).
No problems, really. ('course, I don’t have a printer, so ETF’s problems aren’t something I have to worry about)
Microsoft Activesync had trouble connecting to my smartphone this morning, but it worked fine on the second try. Also, it messed with a few of my LAN settings but that doesn’t seem to have affected anything.
I also uninstalled Windows Live OneCare today.
Now THAT is a steaming hunk of poo.
You need to have Internet Explorer on your Windows installation; and the latest are the most secure.
Yes, you should install it. I run Firefox too, as a default browser, but not updating your Windows and Microsoft applications, or any other application for that matter, is dumb.
Thing is, if you have some common sense, if you have a firewall (yes, Windows Firewall is good enough), if you have updated antivirus software, and if you update your OS and apps – you’re safe as home user.
I’m still in the undecided corner, waiting for all the opinions to come in. Haven’t updated it yet. (I use FF 2.0, anyway)
It’s a good idea to update. If you’re using Firefox, it won’t matter, and it will make your computer a bit more secure.
As a replacement for IE 6, it add some features that IE should have, and makes it more secure. The downside is that some web pages won’t work properly. This is really the fault of the web page: they are using bad code, but IE6 was pretty forgiving. IE7 is not (a security necessity), so they have to make their pages compliant.
I’ve gotten two emails in the past week saying “Don’t do it yet!”
One is related to an internal banking application that’s known to have problems with IE7 and the manufacturer is working on it, and the other is about a government VPN that’s been acting up with IE7 connections.
I’m just happy to see a significant number of responses on this message are using Firefox instead of IE.
Got a gut feeling that’s telling me to hold off letting the auto install go through. That yellow shield thingy is getting insistent, but – like you said, gotpasswords, there’s folk out there who’ve had problems.
I’ll wait a little longer, I think.
I’m gonna give it another couple weeks and see if something 'splodes.
Here’s the thing…do you want to be on the bleeding edge, trying to solve problems? Or would you rather wait until things have stabilized a bit, and the known issues have had a chance to be fixed?
Unless there is something in Ie7 you need which is not available in IE6 and you aren’t allowed to install any other browsers, hold off. Yeah, it looks cool, but it isn’t worth the risk yet.
Not only is my company telling users not to install it, we’re telling people who already have it to roll back. It is known to break several applications we use internally and is implicated in the nonfunctionality of several others.
I’d be surprised if it gets approved in less than six months.
Do what you like at home, but in the office, you’re taking your fate into your own hands by upgrading.
On a personal system, I’d leave it a month or three. Let other people find the problems.
Well I went ahead and installed it this morning, and so far it seems to be working ok. I haven’t experienced a singl
borschevsky: 
Let me answer the OP in this manner–not only have I not installed IE7 I have already placed it on my (long) list of updates which may not show up when I talk to the MotherShip. I suspect that WGA is built into the browser and even though my version of XP is squeaky clean, having shipped with the laptop, I object to WGA under moral grounds and those effers can bite me… There will be no IE7 on my box, ever, since I already use Firefox 2.0 and the IE rendering extension works flawlessly… any page that can’t be accessed with that combo is a page I don’t have any interest in going to!
I infinitely prefer the way Firefox is updated to bring it into compliance with trends in web page design, as opposed to the IE method of trying to anticipate and direct said trends by building in speculative support for things that aren’t in general use–bloating the code for the browser with junk that may never be used and in general degrading performance in the present in order to (maybe) work better in the future… :rolleyes:
I installed IE7 a while back. No problems worth speaking of so far. If you leave the built-in firewall on, and you aren’t an idiot about security, you’ll do fine.
Oh yeah, I also don’t use a pirated copy of Windows or Office, so I don’t give a damn if WGA is installed on my computer. It’s nice to be able to surf the Net without being afraid of The Man
Our corporate IT folks recently distributed an update that blocks Windows update from installing IE7. They did this for XP SP2 for quite a long time too.