I know that I've earned a reputation (small but apparent) for knocking Microsoft. Now, once again, Microsoft has given me pause. With the final availability of Internet Explorer 7.0— released last Thursday—Microsoft believes it has successfully reengineered its browser to address the glaring security holes over which many of us were justifiably obsessed.

I don't need to list all the holes: Over the last five years, a billion-dollar underworld industry has sprung up to take advantage of IE 6's leaky construction. These security holes put our livelihoods at risk within the corporation and within the home.

Five years is a long time to live in the shadow of Internet threat. Now, Microsoft has graciously agreed to fix its browser product. Redmond is sending us Internet Explorer Version 7.0—the first real new version of the browser since 2001—for free, and we're all going to get it, whether we want it or not.

The Remedy for IE 6 Is...IE 7?

Internet Explorer 7.0 will be bundled into the automatic security fix that every Windows XP user who has chosen to automatically obtain gets: a furtive download, a silent reboot, and—Bam!—you've got the new version. It is available now for download, and nearly every IT technician has already obtained a copy. Your users will be getting their own copies soon enough, so you should beef up your support lines to answer their questions.

Why? Because the new version is significantly different from IE 6, and given Microsoft's track record with implementing upgrades, the burden of supporting the upgrade will undoubtedly fall upon your staff.

La Difference?

How different is IE 7 from IE 6? From a functional standpoint, it is the same as and better than its predecessor. Many of the new features will help your organization better position itself for taking advantage of technologies like RSS, Web services, and the like. These features have been in competitive browsers for years, and Microsoft feels we're now mature enough to use them with its new browser.

In addition, security is stronger, eliminating (we are told) the ability for phishing exploits to rape and pillage our desktops. Nonetheless, this is scant praise, considering how terrible IE 6 was for so many years. After all, the desktop security industry—McAfee, Symantec, and others—blossomed alongside the underworld industry that uses those exploits. Oh well! The new IE 7 may free some of those engineers to begin addressing other needed areas of security or maybe even writing some new applications. In my view, praising Microsoft for "fixing" these problems is like praising your teenage daughter for picking up after herself.

The Support Issue

However, the area where your users are going to give you grief will be in how some of your applications work. In particular, custom ActiveX controls—if your organization has been developing these—may need some adjustment. In addition, some Web sites may be rendered slightly differently on IE 7. Why? Well, let's remember that in developing a Web site, there are two standards for HTML, CSS, and the like: "industry standards" and "Microsoft's industry standards."

Microsoft's previous rendering engine performed subtly and differently from rendering engines of non-Microsoft platforms. Even Firefox and Mozilla browsers had difficulty matching pixel for pixel what Microsoft had done with IE 6.

Microsoft says that rendering will not be a problem with IE 7, but a lot of code on a lot of Web sites in the world has embedded JavaScript designed to accommodate the past differences in browsers, and it's still unclear whether there are even more subtle differences between IE 6 and IE 7. How will those JavaScripts handle the differences? Who knows for sure? If the differences exist, it will not only be on your company's Web sites, but on the Web sites that your users visit as well.

Who answers these support calls to explain these differences? Not Microsoft!

So don't be surprised if this "gift" from Microsoft confounds your users in ways that heat up your support lines.

The Interface Issue

But the most significant—and clearly the most troublesome—support calls that your team will get will relate to the user interface of IE 7. Why? Well, because, quite simply, it's "different," and it will take your users some time to adjust.

Now your Microsoft IT tech staff is going to pounce on me here and cry foul. "Come on, Stockwell! So they've removed a few things and added a few things! It's still all there! What's the gripe?"

And it's true! It only looks different. But in my many (too many to count) years in this business—year of supporting users, dealing with clients, and trying to explain software to the people who actually use it—"looks different" is a cause for a user to call for support.

It's never that great new feature that the team has been struggling for months to implement. No! Users can learn new things very quickly, if they know they're learning something new. But "re-learning" to a new interface is always the problem that lights up the phones. "What happened to my menus?" will be the first question. "Where are my bookmarks?" will be the second. On and on, these little (and simply answered) support problems will consume your help desk for hours. So take note! Whether you have only 20 users or hundreds, prepare them a cheat sheet. Don't put it on the Web (they'll never find it; after all, they've got to get there using the browser). Print it out and make copies. It'll save your staff time and help everyone keep their sanity.

End of Spiel?

OK. So that's my spiel about IE 7. But why am I still grousing about Microsoft?

Because the folks in Redmond think they literally own our desktops these days. How many times have you come in on some morning to discover that Microsoft has decided it was time that you rebooted? Did they ask you? Do you really know what they did to that spreadsheet you were working on? Is there any way to know how they gracefully performed the frontal lobotomy on your systems while they downloaded their code into your machine, shut down applications, and did the virtual CTRL+ALT+DEL?

Let me ask this another way: Were your users ever knocking on your door and begging you to "Please, please, please get us the newest version of Microsoft's software"? Did your corporate officers send you an email telling you to obtain that software?

Of course not! In fact, Microsoft never even sent you or your team a memo! Why should they? They own your desktop! Your users don't own it, nor your CTO, nor your CFO! Not even your board of directors! Microsoft owns it, and they decide what's best.

We've grown so complacent about Microsoft's attitude about "their desktop" that I believe they've invented a completely new paradigm for providing service: "We service you when we want! Not when you need!" This is the equivalent telling us, "Bend over! I've got something I want to tell you!" And we do, year after year, release after release, bug after bug.

Do We Need IE 7?

So do we need an upgrade to IE 7? Well, sure, if that's your organization's choice for browsers. But do we need an "automatic upgrade"?

That should be an individual corporation's decision, based upon a policy about software upgrades. This is especially true when the upgrade represents a potentially time-consuming support issue, representing man-hours of phone support, face-to-face training, and flat-out money. The browser upgrade may be free, but the support (our support) costs time and money.

Maybe your organization is prepared for this upgrade, and maybe it's not. Maybe it decided months ago to look at other browsers, like Firefox or one of the other Mozilla-based open-source offerings. Who owns the company's desktops is the issue. It took five years for IE 7 to arrive. Do we go for another five years to await the next upgrade? Of course not! By then we'll all have to be on Microsoft's new operating system, Vista.

The point is that nothing in IE 7 is such an improvement over some of the other browsers that it makes IE 7 a "must have" for doing business. Yet Microsoft, because they believe they own our PCs, can shove it down our throats.

"It's for your own good!" they tell us. But with non-Microsoft browsers steadily increasing their market share (moving from 6% last year to 12% this year), one has to believe that Microsoft has more than our companies' best interests in mind. They've got their eye on market share, and they're losing it.

Thomas M. Stockwell is Editor in Chief of MC Press Online, LP.