First, the problem was compatibility with retail point of sale systems.
Now that Microsoft has released released Service Pack 3 for the
soon-to-be-phased out Windows XP operating system, users have found
another problem.
Greg Keizer of Computerworld US filed this report
Microsoft has warned users updating to Windows XP Service Pack 3
(SP3) that they won’t be able to downgrade from Internet Explorer 7 to
the older IE6 without uninstalling the service pack.
The warning first appeared in a post Monday to a company blog
written by the Internet Explorer (IE) development team. Microsoft
released Windows XP SP3 to Windows Update as an optional download
Tuesday.
“If you choose to install XP SP3, Internet Explorer 7 will remain on
your system after the install is complete,” said Jane Maliouta, an IE
program manager , in the blog entry. “Your preferences will be
retained. However, you will no longer be able to uninstall IE7. If you
go to Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, the Remove option will be
grayed out.”
The inability to downgrade to IE6 after installing XP SP3 was by
design, said Maliouta, because the service pack includes newer versions
of the old browser’s files. 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 until now what was used to back out of the
newer browser — Windows would have ended up in a “mixed file state,”
Maliouta said.
“This state is not supported and is very bug prone. To ensure a
reliable user experience, we prevent this broken state by disabling the
ability to uninstall Internet Explorer 7,” she said.
Users who want to retain the ability to downgrade from IE7 to IE6
should uninstall the former before upgrading to XP SP3. Once Windows XP
has been updated to SP3, users can then install IE7. That process
allows for reverting to IE6 in the future.
“The restriction on uninstalling only applies to when you install a
Windows Service Pack release on top of a standalone IE release,”
Maliouta said.
If Windows XP SP3 has already been installed, the only way to return
to IE6 is to first uninstalled the service pack. At that point, IE6 can
be restored on a PC that’s been updated to IE7.
Microsoft released IE7 in October 2006; it was the first major
update to Internet Explorer since August 2001, when IE6 went final.
The newer browser has not been able to usurp IE6, particularly in
businesses, where it remains Microsoft’s most popular browser.
According to a survey released in late March by Forrester Research ,
only 30% of corporate Internet Explorer users had switched to IE7 by
the end of 2007. IE6 accounted for nearly all the remaining 70%.
Maliouta also outlined how Windows XP SP3 upgrades affect in-place
copies of IE6 and IE7; in both cases, she said, the currently installed
browser remains undisturbed by the update.
However, users who have installed IE8 Beta 1 — a preview of its
newest browser that hit the streets two months ago — will not be
offered Windows XP SP3, according to Maliouta, again because of
possible instability problems.
“We strongly recommend uninstalling IE8 Beta 1 prior to upgrading to
Windows XP SP3 to eliminate any deployment issues,” she said, “and
install IE8 Beta 1 after XP SP3 is on your machine.”