Microsoft to push IE 8 to more business users in August
Microsoft will start pushing Internet Explorer (IE) 8 to business users via Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) on August 25, according to a June 29 posting on the IE Blog.
Microsoft already began pushing IE 8 to users via Windows Update and Automatic Update in April.
If WSUS admins aren't ready/willing for IE 8 to install across PCs in their organizations, they should turn off auto-approve for the IE rollup, the IE team is advising.
Microsoft shared the latest on its IE 8 rollout plans the day before Mozilla made available for download the final version of Firefox 3.5.
Speaking of automatic downloading, I've been getting a few questions this week about Vista Service Pack (SP) 2 and Microsoft's plans for pushing it to users. While Microsoft tried to obscure didn't tout widely its plans for Vista SP2 distribution, the company did, in fact, start pushing SP2 via Windows Update a earlier this month.
A spokesperson clarified on June 29 the company's rollout plans for Vista SP2, which Microsoft released to manufacturing at the end of April:
"Windows Vista SP2 was released to Windows Update last month - May 26th. A throttled release, it started being delivered automatically in June to users who set their Windows Update configuration to receive updates automatically. Different from Windows XP, it's not an 'Automatic Update,' but still part of the Windows Update. Of course, if users want it now, they can go to the Download Center and install it manually."
The TechARP enthusiast site claims Microsoft decided against providing PC makers with the right to distribute SP2 until after Windows 7 was generally available (October 22). I asked Microsoft if this were true and was told by a spokesperson that Microsoft "does not disclose details of our agreements with OEMs."
TechARP said Microsoft decided to delay the Vista SP2's distribution by OEMs because "Microsoft does not want SP2 to interfere with a successful implementation and launch of Windows 7 by their OEM partners."
If you're curious what's in Vista SP2, here's my feature list from a few months ago.
Update (July 1): Microsoft released on June 30 Vista SP2 in all remaining languages (beyond the initially released English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese) and made them available on its download site.