Keep IE7 Off Your Systems

Microsoft's next generation browser, Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) has been available as a public beta for several months now. Currently in beta three, IE7 is planned to be finalized in the fourth quarter of this year (2006.) By putting IE7 out there in public beta for so long, it has provided Microsoft with a large amount of user feedback related to compatibility and functionality. But to this date, not all applications have shown they work properly on the new browser and there's some question as to whether or not these compatibility issues will be fixed by the time IE7 goes gold. Combine this with the fact that seventy to eighty-five percent of all Web users run IE (depending upon whose market share numbers you choose to use,) a large number of people could have their applications put in jeopardy by upgrading to IE7. 
Automatic upgrade 
If you're one of the people who has been playing with the IE7 beta and have discovered compatibility issues, you may be further scared of the idea that Microsoft is planning on pushing the gold version to users of Windows Update automatically when the code is finalized. Specifically, if you are running Windows XP SP2, XP 64-bit Edition or Windows Server 2003 SP1, have cleared the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) check, and have Administrator account access on your system, you'll receive a high-priority update offering to install IE7 onto the system. While most people under these circumstances may accept the upgrade, if you are worried about compatibility or need more time before performing this upgrade, understanding the Windows Update process and taking further steps to prevent the upgrade from happening until your ready are your keys to making sure your users don't wake up one morning to a new, unwelcome experience. 
First, and most importantly, if a user is not an administrator of the system they are using, the upgrade will not happen. Only system administrators can initiate the upgrade to IE7 so if your enterprise is set up with the principle of least privileged user, you don't have to worry about a sudden switch to the new browser. 
Those users who login to a system with Administrator access will be prompted with the normal "Automatic Updates" system tray balloon and be notified that IE7 is ready to be installed. At this point, the user has one of three options: 
"Install"--which initiates a WGA check, installs the software, copies over all the settings from the previous IE installation, reboots the system and then takes the user to a "run-once" page highlighting the features of IE7. 
"Don't Install"--which will not install the upgrade and will not prompt the user to install again. However, any system administrator could choose to install IE7 at a later time. 
"Ask Me Later"--which will not install the upgrade but will prompt the user to install again after 24 hours. 
Automatic blocking 
For any number of reasons you may not be ready for the IE7 upgrade. If you utilize either Windows Server Update Services or Systems Management Server 2003, then you already control which users on your network receive what updates a and when so you can plan for and deploy IE7 if and when necessary. Even if you don't run these management services, as stated earlier, if your users don't run with administrator access then they won't receive the update notification for IE7. Also, if you don't run one of the operating systems mentioned above, you also won't receive the upgrade notification. 
However, for those of you who have users running with administrative privileges, and don't have system management services in place, Microsoft makes available a toolkit to disable automatic delivery of IE7. The toolkit contains both a script to run on the local machine to block automatic delivery on that machine and a group policy administrative template to block or unblock delivery to clients configured with the group policy manager. 
Remember that even if you do this, if the user still has administrative access, they can still download and install IE7 from media or the Microsoft download site. So if you really don't want your users running IE7, you'll have to take control of their systems and revoke their administrative privileges. In the short-run you may wind up with hostile users who are used to doing anything they want with their machines, but in the long run you'll have fewer problems with users doing things they're not supposed to on their machines. 


Source: http://www.serveriq.net/article2/0,1895,2001866,00.asp, By Bob Kane
Copyright (c) 2006 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved.


Contributed by:
Roma Jain
(Sales Head)