In my opinion, and I am sure that other people will agree that older versions of Internet Explorer have been holding the web back. We can all talk about graceful degradation, or progressive enhancement until we are blue in the face, but the matter of fact is that all our clients want all the latest trends working in even the oldest of browsers.

However, today came the announcement from Microsoft that from January they will start to release automatic updates for their aging browser. Utilising the existing Windows Updates feature, this will take effect on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 platforms.

This is huge – and I am keen to see how, as they roll the new approach to browser updates across the world, the stats on browser usage shift.

Can this be the final nail in IE6′s coffin?

Today we are sharing our plan to automatically upgrade Windows customers to the latest version of Internet Explorer available for their PC. This is an important step in helping to move the Web forward. We will start in January for customers in Australia and Brazil who have turned on automatic updating via Windows Update. Similar to our release of IE9 earlier this year, we will take a measured approach, scaling up over time.