Internet Explorer 11 is now available for Windows 7 users, bringing Microsoft's fastest, most secure, and most standards-compliant browser to the company's most widely used operating system.

The browser is almost—but not quite—identical to its Windows 8.1 counterpart. On Windows 8.1, the browser supports the DRM-in-HTML standard Encrypted Media Extensions, and the Windows 8.1 version has a more restrictive security sandbox. There are also various small differences between the two.

As with Internet Explorer 10—and in a change to older versions of Internet Explorer—version 11 will be rolled out as an automatic update. The first users to get the browser will be those with the Release Preview installed. It will then be rolled out to other Windows 7 users in the coming weeks or months.

Windows 8 users who want the new browser will have to upgrade to Windows 8.1.