The writings on the wall.

If you’ve installed XP SP3 you’ll now know that you can’t roll back Internet Explorer 7. The only option you have is to downgrade IE 6 BEFORE you install your shiny new Servie Pack 3. The same will apply to IE 8 in future. According to Jane Maliouta, MS deployment manager for IE 8, Microsoft this feature is all part of the design: “When we install IE7 on Windows XP SP2, we back up the existing IE6 files in an uninstall directory,” Maliouta wrote. “Those IE6 files are the ones that shipped on XP SP2, plus all the security updates you’ve installed while using IE6. Windows XP SP3 contains a newer version of the IE6 files. If you have XP SP3 on your system and uninstall IE7, your system would revert to the backed-up (older) version of the IE6 files, rather than the newer XP SP3 version.”

Choices, choices.

All your preferences will be saved will is a small plus but I don’t like being forced to upgrade. I know IE 7 has been in the wild for sometime now but I like to test software and get some feedback from other user before I CHOOSE to upgrade. IE 6 is still on  my XP box because I simply didn’t like version 7. There you have it: if you don’t want to be stuck with IE 7, downgrade before you apply Service Pack 3.

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