Microsoft promises IE11 on Windows 7
Microsoft today confirmed that Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) will be ported to Windows 7, but declined to name a release date.
The announcement, made during a Wednesday session at the company's BUILD developers conference, was first reported by Engadget.
Earlier this month, Microsoft declined to confirm or deny that IE11 would make it to Windows 7, the most popular edition in the company's OS platform that now powers an estimated 49% of all Windows systems.
Microsoft launched a beta of IE11 Wednesday as part of the Windows 8.1 public preview. The company has not nailed down a ship date for Windows 8.1, saying only that it would appear this fall. If the company mimics the schedule of 2012's Windows 8, the free upgrade -- and thus IE11 on Windows 8 and Windows RT -- will release in late October.
The timing for IE11 on Windows 7 is also a mystery. "Internet Explorer 11 will be available for Windows 7, but we do not have anything to share today regarding timing," a spokeswoman said in an email reply to questions Thursday.
Again, assuming a schedule similar to IE10's, which launched alongside Windows 8 on Oct. 26, 2012 and debuted on Windows 7 on Feb. 26, 2013, Microsoft could roll out IE11 for Windows 7 about four months after it debuts the browser in Windows 8.1.
In that timetable, IE11 for Windows 7 could preview as early as mid-November.
:story: Computerworld
