About This Version

Internet Explorer (IE) is Microsoft's Web browser. IE ships with the Windows operating system and is tightly integrated within it. IS&T provides full support for IE7, including obtaining MIT certificates. It is important that the browser version be current with the operating system, and that all critical IE patches are applied.

Warning: The first time you try to get a new MIT personal certificate in IE7 on Windows XP, you may get the message "Your browser failed to properly generate a key." This is a security-related action, Certificate Enrollment Control, which did not occur in previous versions of IE. Direct your attention to the yellow information bar at the top of the web page. Click in the bar and a small pop-up menu will apear. In the menu, click "Run ActiveX Control", then click Run in the security-warning dialog box. You will be returned to the page Get an MIT Certificate. Re-enter your information and click Submit. This should generate a new personal certificate. For details, see IE7 for Windows XP: Get the MIT Personal Certificate.

On November 1, 2006, Microsoft began a rolling automatic upgrade, via Windows Automatic Update, of IE6 to IE7 for Windows XP. When the IE7 installer is downloaded to your machine, you will be prompted whether or not to continue with the installation, even if your default is for automatic, unprompted Windows updates. (The prompting applies only for IE7 distributed directly from Microsoft's Automatic Update service and does not occur for WAUS)

IE7 has been available through the MIT Windows Automatic Update Servce (WAUS) since January 11, 2007. For more information, see Known Issues.

Note: If you do not wish to upgrade to IE7 or need to remove IE7 follow the instructions at How do I uninstall Internet Explorer 7.

Internet Explorer for the Macintosh is not supported by IS&T. On Macintosh OS X, Safari and Firefox are the supported browsers at MIT.

• Internet Explorer 7 for Windows: Known Issues
• Internet Explorer 7: New Features

back to topHow To Obtain

Available: via non-MIT vendor
This software is commercial software or shareware/freeware available from a third-party vendor. You can download Internet Explorer 7 by clicking on the link above.  If you have IE8, follow these directions to revert to IE7.

As of November 1, 2006, IE7 is being distributed from Microsoft via Windows Automatic Update. The MIT Windows Automatic Update Servce (WAUS) will make IE7 available in early January 2007.