Way to preven Win7 from auto-installing all future IE upgrades?

[cubby1223]

This is becoming a huge pain for me, I do support work for some businesses who must use specific versions of IE to work with specific software, and up through IE 9, the upgrades were completely optional and you had to specifically ask to install them.

But now they are coming in automatically. IE10 caused headaches, so I used MS's tool to block this, and now the same with IE11, so I have to go and uninstall all the copies of IE11 & use MS's tool to insert into the registry a block from auto-installing IE11.

But the same will happen when IE12 releases unless I disable all updates.

Is there anything I can do to stop this for all versions? Thanks.

 

[cubby1223]

I think I found it while searching through the registry, a value called "EnableAutoUpgrade" set it to zero?

 

[Doomer]

No such key in my registry

 

[cubby1223]

It's on my laptop at HKLM\software\microsoft\internet explorer\main

maybe if not present it defaults to enabled, and if present and set to zero doesn't upgrade versions? Because my laptop never auto-upgraded to IE10, and has not to IE11, but I know many other systems have.

 

[xSauronx]

This is becoming a huge pain for me, I do support work for some businesses who must use specific versions of IE to work with specific software, and up through IE 9, the upgrades were completely optional and you had to specifically ask to install them.

But now they are coming in automatically. IE10 caused headaches, so I used MS's tool to block this, and now the same with IE11, so I have to go and uninstall all the copies of IE11 & use MS's tool to insert into the registry a block from auto-installing IE11.

But the same will happen when IE12 releases unless I disable all updates.

Is there anything I can do to stop this for all versions? Thanks.

any of them run WSUS? you can stop it there or with a GPO iirc.

there is a blocker tool as well
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/jj898509.aspx#how

 

[cubby1223]

Businesses are too small to afford a full Windows Server setup, plus all their software is going towards cloud-hosted systems, and they all have different quirks regarding browser requirements.

That blocker tool only blocks IE10, it does not block IE11 - for that you use IE11's blocker tool, but then that tool doesn't prevent IE12...

The other pain I found with IE10 is it replaces the icon in the taskbar from "Internet Explorer" to "Internet Explorer (No Add Ons)" and removing IE10 still leaves that icon as the "no add ons" version for the previous Internet Explorer.

This again so shortly after I cleaned up a lot of messes for a lot of people from the automatic office update that broke the file extension links for Office 2010 starter...


I'm sorry but Microsoft is actively begging people to switch to Macs permanently, they really are, half the times I'm out on a repair call the person just rants, "I want a Mac and not deal with the constant problems."

 

[wiin]

Uncheck "Install new versions automatically" in About Internet Explorer.

This is becoming a huge pain for me, I do support work for some businesses who must use specific versions of IE to work with specific software, and up through IE 9, the upgrades were completely optional and you had to specifically ask to install them.

But now they are coming in automatically. IE10 caused headaches, so I used MS's tool to block this, and now the same with IE11, so I have to go and uninstall all the copies of IE11 & use MS's tool to insert into the registry a block from auto-installing IE11.

But the same will happen when IE12 releases unless I disable all updates.

Is there anything I can do to stop this for all versions? Thanks.

 

[yinan]

MS does this because older versions of IE contain security bugs that are fixed by newer versions. If they do not patch them, then they will get in trouble for being weak on security. It is not their fault that there is other crappy software that cannot use other browsers.

 

[Matt1970]

Uncheck "Install new versions automatically" in About Internet Explorer.

This. Click the little round thingy that looks like a gear.

 

[RandomFool]

I'm sorry but Microsoft is actively begging people to switch to Macs permanently, they really are, half the times I'm out on a repair call the person just rants, "I want a Mac and not deal with the constant problems."

I don't think IE for OS X is solve any issues for you.

But really, the issue isn't MS (anymore) it's the software that only works with IE.

 

[cubby1223]

MS does this because older versions of IE contain security bugs that are fixed by newer versions. If they do not patch them, then they will get in trouble for being weak on security. It is not their fault that there is other crappy software that cannot use other browsers.

Unfortunately not all businesses have a spare $50k sitting around to reprogram a software package to be compatible with the latest updates every time an update changes things. And $50k is on the lighter side of professional software development...

 

[EagleKeeper]

Unfortunately not all businesses have a spare $50k sitting around to reprogram a software package to be compatible with the latest updates every time an update changes things. And $50k is on the lighter side of professional software development...

Upgrades are supposed to be backward compatible. (no guarantees)

The software may be coded incorrectly to look for certain things that are not standard or expecting a certain version that has features needed.

 

[Mushkins]

As mentioned, the IE10 and IE 11 blocker toolkits work wonders both for domains via GPO and for standalone systems. If your business isn't big enough for a domain, then its still small enough to walk around to everyones PC and install the security policy

Unfortunately there really is no way to guarantee a new version of IE wont be installed as a critical update before the make it one outside of turning off all auto updates or a WSUS implementation.

There's no such thing as a catch-all technology solution for all businesses. It's up to your IT department and your executives to work together to decide if your time uninstalling IE10 and configuring the blocker is worth more than the cost of upgrading to a domain based infrastructure with WSUS.

That being said, I feel your pain. I spent this morning playing the "IE11 snuck through to half the company" game and half our software didnt work :/

 

[cubby1223]

Upgrades are supposed to be backward compatible. (no guarantees)

The software may be coded incorrectly to look for certain things that are not standard or expecting a certain version that has features needed.

In the particular business, these are a bit more complicated apps that connect to peripherals attached to the computer, whether it be a scanner, a signature pad, or diagnostic tools which connect with the product's onboard computer systems. There are software vendors who do a better job at providing the services with more compatible software, they make it happen by charging a few thousand dollars more per month per client.