IE7, IE7+ and Autoupdate

Slightly off the Exchange topic today but with good reason. I have recently seen a few interesting mails fly through my mailbox regarding what's happening with IE. In a nutshell Internet Explorer 7 will be known under two different names:

IE7+ running on Windows Vista: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0)

IE7 running on Windows XP: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1)

The purpose of the “ + ” symbol is simple - IE7 installed on Vista exploits Vista technology

For more details, take a look here

Some may have also read about the fact that IE7 will be pushed out via AutoUpdate.

I personally feel that this is great, quite simply because of the new security technology that is included to make a very secure browsing environment as well as a great streamlined browsing experience for the user.

I know from working in support, that testing is key to a successful deployment, simply to make sure that any issues that may arise, can be ironed out before widespread deployment occurs. Which is why you may be interested in the following link to initially disable the autodelivery of IE7 whilst testing is carried out.

For those that wish to test IE before it RTM's can download the BETA builds can do so from here.