UH IT says to wait a bit before installing IE 7.

In the latest issue of Legalese, I reviewed Microsoft's upgraded Internet Explorer 7.0. Today, Bill Ashley, from UH's Information Technology department sent an e-mail to everyone on campus recommending that students and faculty delay installing the new IE 7.0 until the spring semester.

Information Technology recommends that UH students, faculty, and staff delay installing Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) until the semester break because of incompatibility issues between the new software and certain important UH applications, including WebCT and PeopleSoft.

IT is testing IE7 against all enterprise UH applications to identify software incompatibilities or installation issues that may arise as a result of upgrading to the new browser.

The e-mail also advised that IE 7 was due to be released November 1 (today). Actually, it was released on October 19, so a good many people may have already installed the browser. Also, Microsoft has scheduled the browser to roll out automatically to Windows XP users on November 14. But, as you can see here, you can opt out of the upgrade by simply choosing "Don't Install" when you're prompted. If you decide to give it a try, you can uninstall it later if there's a problem. This kind of user choice is a nice change for Microsoft. In the past, the software maker has made it difficult for users to roll back to previous versions after upgrading.

Should you avoid installing the upgrade? IT issued the following caution:

If you choose to proceed with the upgrade, please be aware of these known issues:

• Incompatibility with the WebCT Vista email editor
• Additional configurations that are required for PeopleSoft

I've been running it since the Beta was released, and had no problems at all. But, like most students, I don't use WebCT or Peoplesoft. If you do, then I'd probably steer clear. If you have additional questions or concerns UH IT asks that you visit this page for more information.