IE10 for Windows 7 Is Getting Closer, And You Can Block The Update

"Business and organizations that want to manage their own update schedule can use the IE10 Automatic Update Blocker Toolkit to disable automatic delivery of Internet Explorer 10. This Blocker Toolkit—like its predecessors for IE9, IE8, and IE7—is now available on the Microsoft Download Center. While we encourage all customers to upgrade their browser to the latest version as quickly as possible, this approach lets organizations control when they are ready to deploy IE10 to their Windows 7 users. All other customers with Windows Update not using the toolkit will be automatically upgraded from IE9 to IE10.

The IE10 Automatic Update Blocker Toolkit can be used to prevent Internet Explorer 10 from being automatically installed on users’ Windows 7 machines when it is available via Automatic Update. This Toolkit has no expiration date and is configured either by running the registry file on the client machine or by deploying Group Policy in domain joined environments. The toolkit also provides an unblock procedure that allows IE10 to be installed through Automatic Update.

When IE10 Release Preview is installed on Windows 7, the IE10 Automatic Update Blocker Toolkit does not block automatic deployment of IE10. This ensures that users running IE10 Release Preview continue to receive the latest security fixes. Additionally, the toolkit does not prevent users from manually installing IE10 from the Microsoft Download Center.

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Organizations that use an update management solution such as Windows Server Update Services(WSUS) or System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) do not need to deploy the IE10 Automatic Update Blocker Toolkit. WSUS and SCCM allow organizations to fully manage deployment of updates released through Windows Update, including IE10."

If your organization uses any web tools or sites that don't work with IE10 yet [yes (product name deleted) I'm looking at you], this is something that might come in handy for you. While your users can still manually install IE10, this will help them keep them on the right track if they are using Windows Update.