Been avoiding to deploy Internet Explorer 7 in your business environment? Well, if you are a Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) user and have set it to automatically approve Update Rollups, then you'll need to disable that rule before February 12 to stop IE7 from being forced upon your infrastructure.

The upgrade was actually announced last October, when Microsoft released an updated version of IE7 that did not require Windows Genuine Advantage validation to check whether users were running a legitimate copy of Windows XP before allowing them to download the browser. Microsoft explained that the move was prompted by security concerns.

Many companies, however, may have critical, often locally developed web-based applications that do not work or have limited functionality with the newer version of the browser. In light of this, Microsoft has issued step-by-step instructions for stopping WSUS from performing this update.