Reports: IE 7 Crashes While Accessing Windows Updates

Some users of Internet Explorer 7's beta are reporting problems accessing the crucial Windows Update and Microsoft Update sites, but Microsoft denied any system-wide glitch.

"Tried going to Windows Update or Microsoft Update w/ IE7 beta yet?" wrote Evan Burroughs, an IE 7 user, to TechWeb in a Thursday e-mail. "It crashes the browser. How does a beta user fix or update the browser when it crashes at the site it uses to update and fix flaws?"

Burroughs' experience is not the only complaint about Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview; numerous messages on Microsoft's official IE 7 newsgroup, as well as the one dedicated to Windows Update issues, strike the same tone.

"IE7 crashes immediately when I click through to Windows Update," wrote Ralph Poole Wednesday. "On WinXP SP2, IE6 SP2 works fine with Microsoft Update, but when trying the same site with IE7 Beta 2 P, I am getting this error: 0x80072EE2," wrote someone identified only as "gahbmwM5."

Several messages on the newsgroups reference the same error code. Other users on the newsgroups pointed people to a Microsoft support document that offers a slew of possible causes and fixes, including complicated chores such as removing entries for Windows Update and Microsoft Update from the local hosts file.Microsoft said it was not aware of any systemic problem.

"Our internal testing and the external feedback we have received has not detected any active bugs with the Windows Update or Microsoft Update thus far," a Microsoft spokesperson said Thursday.

Tuesday, Feb. 14 was the first monthly release of security fixes via Windows Update and Microsoft Update since IE 7 Beta 2 Preview went public in late January.