Ars Technica is reporting that Microsoft are starting to roll out Internet Explorer 7 automatically to Windows XP machines via Windows Update.

This means that all machines currently running IE6 that have the default update behaviour of ‘automatically download and install updates’ will automatically download IE7 as a high priority update. It’s a major new release, but I would argue it’s not ‘high priority’ if it’s not a security fix.

They’re currently rolling it out slowly to different target user groups, as they’re apparently not trying to overwhelm IT departments with upgrades. Also it’s worth mentioning that users will be prompted whether they want to go through with the install after the automatic download.

Remember - you can always upgrade manually at Microsoft’s site, but also remember that upgrading in any form requires Microsoft’s Windows Genuine Validation. Enjoy.