XP Service Pack 3 may cause browser problems

Microsoft has warned Windows XP users they will not be able to change to different versions of the Internet Explorer browser once they install XP's third service pack.

The firm says users trying out Internet Explorer 7 will not be able to revert back to Internet Explorer 6 after installing XP Service Pack 3 (SP3).

The same applies to those users trialling the beta version of Internet Explorer 8 after they install the service pack, with those users also unable to downgrade to older versions of the browser in the future.

This means IE8 beta users could be locked into a beta version of the browser and having to cope with bugs and an incomplete version of the software.

Users currently running IE7 on XP SP2 will see Windows Update offer them XP SP3 as a high-priority update.

Once installed, IE7 will remain on their system. Microsoft said the reason for this was to deliver a stable file state and to ensure the latest updates to the browser remained active in the operating system.

In the case of IE8 users, Microsoft is not offering SP3 via Windows Update to help avoid any problems. It has warned IE8 users to uninstall the beta before choosing to install SP3.