Internet Explorer 8 begins business rollout next month

 

Gallery

By Stuart Turton

Posted on 2 Jul 2009 at 08:23

Microsoft will start pushing out Internet Explorer 8 to businesses through automatic updates next month, the company has announced.

The software giant will roll out the latest version of its browser through the Windows Server Update Service (WSUS) as an "Update rollup", giving IT managers a month to either disable the automatic update or thoroughly test the browser on their systems.

The announcement means that any machines running Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003 or Server 2008 will automatically update Internet Explorer 6 or 7 to version 8 if administrators have set WSUS to auto-approve "Update rollup" packages.

Admins who want to skip the IE8 update need to disable auto-approve for "Update rollup" packages in WSUS prior to 25 August, then decline the IE8 update when offered. They can re-enable it when this step has been taken.

The business rollout was originally slated for July, but the software giant has yet to give any reason for the delay.

Internet Explorer 8 was officially released in March, and was pushed out to end-users through Windows Update in April as Microsoft attempted to snatch back market share lost to rivals including Firefox. Analysis firm Net Applications claims IE8 accounted for 7.6% of all browsers in May.