Microsoft has warned Windows XP users they will not be
able to change to different versions of the Internet Explorer
browser once they installXP'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.