There are going to be a lot of significant releases over the next couple of months, and first out of the gate is Internet Explorer 7!  Starting yesterday evening, users can download Internet Explorer 7 if they’re running a genuine copy of Windows XP (or above).

For now, you have to explicitly download IE7 (i.e. it won’t come through automatic updates).  However, starting next month, everyone with Automatic Updates enabled that hasn’t explicily put a blocking mechanism in place will get the IE7 upgrade as a critical update.

I’ve been using Interent Explorer 7 in beta for a couple of months and I have to say that I’m a big fan.  Of course, tabbed browsing is nice, as is the integrated search box, but most of those were available in add-on form.  Of course, almost all of the features have been available in Firefox for some time, but I’m not a fan of Firefox for the same reason I don’t use a Mac at home — I like to keep my computing mainstream for optimal compatibility.  I did try using Firefox at one point, but got frustrated by things rendering differently or certain sites not being 100% functional (regardless of which browser is doing things “right”, I just want things to work).

Download Internet Explorer 7