Microsoft will make the new Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) tool an automatic update when it is available at the end of the year.

As is the case with Windows updates, most machines are set up to accept them automatically or issue reminders that an update is available. Users can choose to not install the program.

When IE7 is installed it will not become the default browser, but it will use a new facility to transfer across favourites and toolbars from IE6.

The arrival of IE7 comes before the scheduled release of Microsoft Vista, the new desktop system that promises to revolutionise the way in which customers and partners use a computer.

Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, stated: "Windows Vista, IE 7, Office 2007. These are big releases. You could say in Vista's case a long time in the making, if you want to, and I think that's probably a fair statement, a long time in the making, but absolutely a blockbuster release.

"I think it's probably important for me to tell our partners to rest assured we will never have a gap between Windows releases as long as the one between XP and Windows Vista; count on it."

Critics of IE7 and followers of Opera or Firefox see Microsoft's decision as an admittance of the bugs that IE6 contains.

However IE6 holds over 80 per cent of browser users and many see it as easier to use and less liable to freeze up.

ihotdesk are a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and provide IT support throughout London and the UK



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