Internet Explorer 7 opens to all, pirates included

Most probably in a reaction to increasing share of firefox in the web world Microsoft did a complete U-Turn on its earlier policy of not allowing IE 7 to run on windows OS that fail the WGA(windows Genuine advantage) validation test. Users running pirated or counterfeit copies of Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 can now download Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft announced yesterday.

This is the first time that Microsoft has removed a WGA check for a major product. Among those that still require validation are Windows Defender, the company’s antispyware software, and Windows Media Player 11.

The IE7 update also sports a few tweaks: The menu bar is now visible by default, for example, and a new administration kit that includes a revamped MSI installer is available to smooth corporate deployment.

Users can download IE7 from Microsoft’s site immediately.