Windows update has gone weird

[Tannin]

Starting about three days ago, Windows Update no longer offers Internet Explorer 7. This is weird. Let's follow the sequence through, OK?

1: IE 7 is in beta: you need to be part of the beta program to get it.
2: IE 7 is released, sort of. It's on Windows update, but only available to a small percentage of randomly chosen people. (They wanted a staggered rollout, not everyone in the whole world bringing their servers to their knees. Fair enough)
3: IE 7 is always on Windows Update.
4: IE 7 is now regarded as a critical update and you get it whether you want it or not. (It downloads itself, but asks you if you then want to install it.)
5: IE 7 doesn't exist anymore.

WTF?

This started on Friday (Oz time) and I assumed it was just something specific to the machine I was working on. But the next one was the same. Come Monday, all the machines I worked on were the same. Tuesday, Wednesday, still no IE 7 on Windows Update. I even tried Microsoft Update instead of Windows Update: no dice.

WTF are Microsoft playing at?

 

[P5-133XL]

I don't know what is going on for you. However, you can DL it from Microsoft here: IE7. So it hasn't been totally removed from their site.

If your OS is not setup right, I know that it won't offer IE7. That includes XP (pre SP2), or Windows 2000, or Windows 2003 pre SP1. However, I also noticed over this last weekend, it wasn't offered in the usual update for 2003 SP1, so I manually DL'ed it ...

P.S. For me, I dL'ed the 2003 version rather than the link above for the XP version. I don't even know if there's a difference, but it was better to be safe than sorry. If you need a different version, than above, then simply search the Microsoft web site for IE7 download ...

 

[Tannin]

Thanks Mark, that will be a handy link.

BTW, I'm talking ... oh ... maybe 12 different machines, all running XP Pro Upgrade, XP Home OEM, or XP Pro OEM. A roughly even mix of existing installs having spyware and crap cleaned off, fresh installs on old systems (mostly with format), and new systems. Actually, it would be more like 15 or 18 systems, now that I count them up. Been busy!

Oh, and another machine that wouldn't pick it up either, until I remembered that this one was a W2K system and knocked the sawdust out of my ear.

Still mystifies me that it isn't on Windows Update. Oh, and I also checked in the "Software, optional" category, wasn't there either.

Go figure .....

 

[Adcadet]

For the past few days my Window Update has "failed!" to install a number of updates, all updates and security updates for Office, Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint 2003. I've tried to make sure that I've got absolutely no component of Office running, but that still hasn't worked.

 

[ddrueding]

Yep Tannin, I can confirm what you've found. I do manual updates on my production servers to control when they are reset. The list for one DC in particular included IE7 a week ago. It hasn't been installed yet and last night it was no longer on the list. Very weird.

 

[Bozo]

I just did a clean install of XP SP2 and then went to Update. It downloaded 84 updates and patches but no IE7.

Weird.

Bozo :joker:

 

[mubs]

I got a taskbar notification today that updates are available (I have Auto updates set to notify only). When I go to see what it is, voila, WGA! I declined of course. Some full moons ago, IE 7 was on the updates list, but I unchecked it and asked to "don't notify again" and haven't seen it since. Handy asked a question in another thread as to whether installing IE7 was recommended. I guess nobody really knows since there were no replies.

 

[Adcadet]

I usually use Firefox, but I do on occasion use IE. I really like the addition of tabs in IE7, and makes it a usable browser, IMO.

 

[Corvair]

>> Windows update has gone weird

The "weird" disappearance of IE7 from the Critical Updates list (or any other Windows Update category) was caused by excessive numbers of people that installed IE7 and ended up having to back out the installation for web-browser-compatibility reasons. A large percentage of these people are most likely corporate customers.

 

[Tannin]

Corvair, that's really sad. Are you for real? I mean how sad can you get? You get a whole lot of people back out of installing a browser that actually works most of the time on most web pages because they have been using pages that are so broken that they only work when the browser is hopelessly broken too.

It's just ridiculous. Totally absurd.

 

[Will Rickards]

Here I thought it might have something to do with the new WGA thing they released. I thought you'd probably have to recertify or whatever they call it before you see IE7 as an update.

 

[CougTek]

Are you for real?

He's only 1/10th.

And there's a new Genuine Check Notification on Windows Update. I'm pretty sure that the WGA hack #1.5.540 will no longer work after it. I'm not concerned (I have a genuine corporate license), but I know many people who omit to pay for a license thanks to this.

 

[.Nut]

Starting about three days ago, Windows Update no longer offers Internet Explorer 7. This is weird.

Teannin:

If you click "Custom" when you first start Windows Update, you can get the IE7 download.

Microsoft moved IE7 from "High Priority" down one step in the hierarchy of updates to "Optional."