Microsoft to offer automatic upgrades to IE from next year

 

Microsoft will start automatically upgrading the majority of Windows users to the latest version of Internet Explorer from early this year.

The aim is to improve security for people when they go online by ensuring that as many as possible have the most up-to-date version of the browser. But the move is also seen as the final push to get rid of the aged IE6 version, released in August 2001.

Microsoft is so eager for people to stop using this version that it set up a count down website earlier this year to track how many people still use the browser. As of November 8.3 per cent of the world are still using IE6.

Ryan Gavin, Microsoft's chief of Internet Explorer business and marketing, said in his blog that the "web overall is better and safer when more people run the most up-to-date browser".

He added that: "Our goal is to make sure that Windows customers have the most up-to-date and safest browsing experience possible, with the best protections against malicious software such as malware," he said.

The initiative will kick off in January for Windows users in Australia and Brazil. However the software giant said the initiative would be widened to include other countries over the coming months.

The automatic upgrade will affect users of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, but which browser people get will depend on which version of the operating system they are running.

Customers running Windows Vista with service pack two or Windows 7 with service pack one will be upgraded to IE9. XP users with service pack three will be upgraded to IE8, as IE9 does not run on this operating system.

However Microsoft said it has no plans to force people using IE to upgrade if they really don't wish to. People who have already declined to install either IE8 or IE9 through Windows Update will not be automatically updated, the company said.