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I agree that it seems a bit different than in the past, but let's really examine it.. 1) It only notifies users who have administrator privileges. How many managed computers on campus actually have users logging on for daily work under an administrator account? Ours don't. (We also have them set up with a WSUS server so they don't get Microsoft's automatic updates anyway, but that's a different issue.) 2) It's not truly an "automatic" update in the way that normal security patches are. Even if the computer is set up for completely automatic updates and someone (either the end user or computer support) logs on as an administrator, the update will NOT install without permission, so it in no way will install without "end users or their computer support people deciding when to make the move". 3) The description of the Automatic Update schedule for IE7 is very much like that for XP SP2, in that it will not be made available to every computer immediately on the first day. They say it will take several months to complete (presumably to avoid overloading their download sites). So only a small proportion of computers will be affected by this on the morning they roll it out. So, my question is--Is this really that different from the way IE6 was offered as part of Windows Update? At that time, if you went to Windows Update in order to keep up with necessary security patches (for which you had to be logged on as administrator), the IE6 upgrade was offered to you and you could choose not to install it if you didn't want to. I don't remember any great outcry from computer support people about this. To me, the IE7 plan seems like almost exactly the same model, adapted for Automatic Updates. > -----Original Message----- > From: MSU Network Administrators Group > [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Gorentz > Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 11:59 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] IE 7 automatic rollout Nov 1 as part of > Windows Update > > At 11:53 PM 10/17/2006, Richard Wiggins wrote: > > >.... So whether it's November 1 or November 15 or whatever, it > >behooves us to be ready. It is a very different model for the > >vendor to push browser upgrades via automated update, > instead of end > >users or their computer support people deciding when to make > the move. > > And it shows that Microsoft has a lot of disrespect for its > customers if it thinks it should be the one to decide how > they are going to spend their morning when they roll this out. > > John Gorentz >