Microsoft officially announced a number of details on Windows 8.1, the upcoming refresh of its operating system, and one of things mentioned was IE11, which is to be included in the free update.
But is Internet Explorer 11 going to be released for Windows 7? That remains the big question.
According to a report over at Computerworld, Microsoft is not overly keen on this, at least for the moment. The software titan is not talking about any plans for releasing IE11 beyond Windows 8.1. A company official was quoted as saying:
“We aren’t sharing anything around which versions of Windows IE11 will be available on at this time.”
Judging by how things have transpired in the past, Microsoft usually wants to cover as many Windows users as it can with each new version upgrade to Internet Explorer. The company, however, changed this strategy a bit with IE10 and Windows 8.
Microsoft decided to concentrate on Windows 8 users for the launch, as Internet Explorer 10 was exclusively available for its newest operating system the first few months.
It was only earlier this year, when a build of IE10 for Windows 7 came out.
Ultimately, however, keeping an eye on the market share numbers for the various versions of Windows, it becomes clear that Windows 7 with its commanding numbers (of around 50 percent) is too hard to ignore. IE11 may take a while, but there is a fair chance that it will come to Window 7.
Windows XP and Windows Vista users on the other hand may not be that lucky.
The vintage operating system in particular — not only is its security structure inherently different than the modern versions of the OS, but Microsoft is actively trying to pull the plug off of Windows XP.
