If you are thinking to upgrade your Windows XP to Service Pack 3, you should hold on a moment there and think twice, because once Service Pack 3 is installed you are unable to downgrade from Internet Explorer 7 to the older IE6.
According to ComputerWorld, Microsoft Corp warns Windows users that once Service Pack 3 is installed, the option to uninstall IE7 will be grayed out in the Control Panel and apparently this is done on purpose. Here’s the reason explained by IE program manager:
If Microsoft had allowed users to revert back to the pre-SP3 version of IE6 — the one saved on users’ PCs when they upgraded to IE7, and what was used until now to back out of the newer browser — Windows would have ended up in a “mixed file state
This looks like a measurement taken to move users towards IE7? How long can you stay with Windows XP SP2 and below. According to W3School, IE6 (30.1%) is still the biggest market after Firefox (37%) with IE7(21.9%) about 10% away. The peak of IE6 days were somewhere around November 2006, where it dominates about 70% of the browser market. It has been greatly reduced over the years. Anyway if you really want to avoid all these SP3 un-downgradable to IE6 thing, why not just stick with Firefox?
via computerworld
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Posted by hongkiat in Microsoft, Tech News , at 05.13.08
Tags: IE6, ie7, Microsoft, service pack 3 |
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Comments
Kay May 13th, 2008
Yes. Firefox is better. :)
ReplyBoltClock May 13th, 2008
Why are you telling people (who insist on IE at least) to think twice? There’s no such thing as thinking twice for a sin such as IE6.
Also, I’m not posting this from Safari on purpose, I just happened to be browsing with it when I saw this post :P
ReplyBoltClock May 13th, 2008
Anyway, SP3 has been wrecking a lot of computers. Unless Microsoft does something about it, it won’t be anytime soon that IE6 usage starts to fall behind quickly. If they sort it out and SP3 works like a charm… the world will be a much better place to live :)
Replyhongkiat May 13th, 2008
@BoltClock As much as most of us hate IE6, there’s still a big majority out there still using this browser, thanks to Microsoft for making this a default. So any web development and design, we still need to cater for IE6’s display.
ReplyBoltClock May 13th, 2008
I have dropped IE6 support long ago. It’s only a coincidence now that my new layout happens to work fine in IE6 after a few hacks to get it to display sanely.
But since Microsoft has kinda adopted an attitude that benefits us designers by pushing IE7 (at least) usage by means of SP3, all I hope for now is that SP3 gets sorted out.
ReplyGlenn May 14th, 2008
YES!!! that means a gigantic lawsuit from the european union just like the one with Windows Media Player.
ReplyIn Europe all software delivered with the OperatingSystem MUST be de-installable and NOT locked!
so looks like MS is going to have a whale of a time on this one…
k77 May 14th, 2008
Do Microsoft Piss people off deliberately as marketing scam?
ReplyBoltClock May 14th, 2008
@Glenn: I don’t understand why the EU gives such a crap especially since this is IE. European usage of Firefox has already increased rapidly and there’s not much of a point that I see in the EU getting Microsoft to allow rollbacks to IE6. Oh well.
@k77: It’s obvious what the answer is.
Replyeda July 20th, 2008
SP3 is killing me.it BLOCKED me from using WMP9.0,insisted on WMP10.0,but when i try to DL ver10.0.it insisted on original OS.i can afford that man,i’m still studying.so i happily go back to SP2.
Reply