When Microsoft released the Windows 8.1 Update, IT feathers were ruffled by Microsoft's decision to make it a compulsory update: without it, Windows 8.1 systems would no longer receive security fixes. As spotted by Computerworld's Gregg Keizer, Microsoft is applying the same rules, at least in part, to Windows 7.

Windows 7 users who've installed Internet Explorer 11 are required to install the KB2929437 update. This is the Internet Explorer 11 update that corresponds to the Windows 8.1 Update; it doesn't just include security fixes for Microsoft's browser. There are also some new and improved features, including a more capable WebGL implementation and some additional high performance JavaScript features. If users don't install the update, Windows Update will not provide any more security fixes for their browser.

For the next couple of months, Microsoft is actually still making security fixes for the original Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 7 release, but anyone who wants to use them will have to either download and install them manually, or install them through Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), Windows Intune, or System Center Configuration Manager. Even this avenue will end in August. This will give conservative corporations only a limited amount of time to actually test and validate the updated Internet Explorer 11.

For any other Windows browser, this wouldn't be unusual. Want the latest security fixes for Chrome? You'll need the latest features of Chrome too. The same is true for most Firefox users as well; security updates and feature updates are wrapped up together, and you'll need the latter to get the former (the exception being the rarely used Extended Support Releases, that give security fixes without the features).

But for Internet Explorer, this is a novelty. Microsoft's general approach was to avoid adding new features to existing versions. The company has, from time to time, added features to Internet Explorer without bumping the version number, but these versions were indicated in other ways. For example, Internet Explorer 6 was given a bunch of new security features back when Windows XP Service Pack 2 was released. When this happened, the browser was named Internet Explorer 6 SV1. Moreover, the original version of the browser (without these improvements) remained supported for several years.

This is another sign of Microsoft's new approach to Internet Explorer's development. Internet Explorer 11 was pushed out to Windows 7 users as an automatic update, which is good news for Web developers, as it means that more people are running a modern browser with modern features. Forcing Internet Explorer 11 users to also install this update has the same consequence: it means that everyone running Internet Explorer 11 also has the WebGL and JavaScript improvements.

Along with the new Developer Channel and public development status tracker, Microsoft is starting to develop Internet Explorer in a way that's a lot closer to its competition.

With the new mingling of security and feature updates, perhaps it's time for Redmond to make things a little more explicit and follow the other thing competing browsers do: wildly bump the major version number each time a few minor features are added. Combine this with a clear statement that users will need to accept feature and security changes together, and then the only thing left for Microsoft to do to keep pace with the competition is ship a new version every six weeks.

Listing image by Flickr user: Jeff Wilcox