[WinPartners] Internet Explorer 7 coming November 1, 2006 !

[Alex Kozlov]

Good Afternoon,

Microsoft recently released Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) for Windows XP.
Starting November 1, 2006, Microsoft will deliver IE7 as a critical update
via Windows Automatic Update, which means that most machines will
automatically upgrade to IE7 on that date. The Information Services and
Technology (IS&T) Computing Help Desk will begin official support for IE7 on
November 1 and online documentation will be available at that time. 

IS&T has been thoroughly testing IE7 since its final release and verified
previous findings:

- No serious incompatibilities or conflicts with MIT and ECAT vendors Web
sites were found
- Usage of existing MIT certificates functions on stand alone Windows XP SP2
machines as does generating a new MIT personal certificate
- Upgrading to IE7 from IE6 works as expected preserving user settings,
bookmarks, and MIT personal certificate
- There are many new features in IE7 as well as many improvements in
security and usability which may require users to change how they interact
with the browser

Based on these findings we expect that the upgrade to IE7 via Windows
Automatic Update should not cause any serious problems for the MIT computing
community. Most web sites, extensions, and applications continue to work
with IE7. 

IS&T Recommendation:
If you determine that your environment is not ready for IE7, IS&T recommends
that you change Windows Automatic Updates settings on PCs to point to MIT
Windows Automatic Update Service (WAUS) at
http://web.mit.edu/ist/topics/windows/updates/. This change will prevent
deployment of IE7 in your environment on November 1, 2006.  IE7 will not be
deployed by MIT WAUS (WSUS) until early January 2007. Security patches for
Internet Explorer 7 will be deployed via MIT WAUS immediately. Please note
that your environment does not have to be part of win.mit.edu domain in
order to use MIT WAUS.

Pointers to tools, resources, and solutions are available from IE7 release
notebook at http://web.mit.edu/swrt/releases/ie7/index.html. We would
appreciate hearing about your experiences with IE7 and if you encountered
any issues with MIT web sites. Please send your feedback to
ie7-release at mit.edu.


Alexander Kozlov 
Windows Platform Coordinator
Software Release Team
Information Services & Technology
MIT
W92-148, Cambridge, MA 02139
 
Tel  (617) 253-5103
Fax (617) 258-8736