Sci/Tech Microsoft preps auto IE8 update amidst dramatic usage share decline

[The Helper]

Redmond (WA) – As IE8’s adoption rates lag far behind initial expectations, Microsoft prepares its most powerful tool to push the browser out to user computers. The company said that it is preparing an Automatic Update/Windows Update targeting IE6 and IE7 users, which make currently make up about 93% of the IE user base. The update will be published in the third week of April. And we wonder: Can it slow the rapid decline of IE market share?

Microsoft has been carefully rolling out IE8 that requires most users to actively request the download of the software. Last week, the company began offering automatic updates to users who were running pre-release versions of IE8 (Beta 2 or Release Candidate 1) of the software and IE6 and IE7 users will see this automatic update appear this week, Microsoft confirmed in a blog post.

More about it here.

 

[sqrage]

Why the thumbs down?

Sure it's kinda bad to push downloads into people like Apple does with Safari (the download is automatically checked whenever you need to update itunes/quicktime) but this isn't completely new software that's being installed, it's an update to existing software that's already on your computer. Not to mention that people who are still running IE6 and IE7 will be open to many vulnerabilities that would not be so if they were on IE8.

 

[Darthfett]

Why the thumbs down?

Sure it's kinda bad to push downloads into people like Apple does with Safari (the download is automatically checked whenever you need to update itunes/quicktime) but this isn't completely new software that's being installed, it's an update to existing software that's already on your computer. Not to mention that people who are still running IE6 and IE7 will be open to many vulnerabilities that would not be so if they were on IE8.

QFT. I've been seeing a lot of articles going against this sort of thing. It's not an abuse of power, as people can choose whether or not to install.

 

[1Shredder1]

One hundred dollars says its hacked in 2 weeks, lol

 

[The Helper]

Hacked to do what? Virus infected yeah sure. That is inevitable and making it an autodownload is just setting the stage for trouble.

 

[Rapmaster]

Why would it be any less secure than IE7? It will have even more features to protect users from themselves (I still haven't figured out how where all these drive-by spyware installations come from, even in IE, since 2007, but I assume it's porn sites pushing fake "codec.exe" or fake anti-virus sites... both of which take user intervention anyway) and I'm sure some people will still manage to install some crap, but that's no reason to not push IE8 out through Windows Update.